ECCLES PUB FOR SALE WITH A £1.5 MILLION PRICE GUIDE

I passed the Duke of York public house tonight and saw a For Sale sign hanging above the front door, not certain how long it's been there as the pub is still open and thriving, but I did a bit of research.

The property is up for sale with Latchkey and Vault, Estate Agents based in Manchester who specialise in commercial and residential sales with a guide price of £1,500,000, and here is their description of the premises...

"The Duke of York is a substantial 3 storey brick building with beautiful Tudor design. this freehold property is situated conveniently next to the tram station, providing easy access to and from Manchester City Centre, local to all amenities and dominating a prominent corner location.

The building has recently undergone major refurbishment works through-out.

The ground floor commercial space is Let on a 6 year lease from June 2017 and generates an income of £32,000pa.

On the first and second floor is the residential accommodation comprising of 13 studio rooms which is Let on a corporate 5 year lease from January 2021 generates £76,000pa till January 2026 producing a combined income of £108,000pa. Further details available upon request.

It looks as if the pubs six year lease is up in 2013 and the accommodation lease for the 13 studio rooms is up in 2026, presumably the new purchaser will have to negotiate extensions to both leases.

I knew there were flats or studio flats as they are called in the pub, but had no idea there were 13 spread over the two floors which generates £76,000 per annum, which is a good return, whilst the bar generates £32,00 per annum which seems fairly healthy.

As a lover of the pubs of Eccles I have very fond memories of this pub which dates back to 1898 and no, my memory doesn't stretch quite that far back.

I attended several concerts there in the music room upstairs which had both Folk and Jazz nights which attracted large crowds and first class artistes including, Christy Moore and Mike Harding.

More recently when Robin Bence took over the pub and changed it into a Real Ale emporium, which was a success for a while, and could boast of having Eccles's first non smoking room, a novel idea at the time.

To bring this up to date the Duke of York has in the past few years had a refurbishment with new toilets, new management and is a pleasant pub to have a pint in.

Hopefully the new owners will keep the pub as it is and not convert the entire premises into studio flats which would be heart breaking, Eccles can't afford to lose any more pubs.