Bankers Pub may finally be off the town tab

By Mark Squibb
September 15, 2023

After years of negligence, the Bankers Pub in Carbonear may finally be sold.

Councillor Chris O’Grady noted the apparent sale during the finance committee update at Tuesday’s council meeting.

“We may have an agreement for the sale of the Banker’s Pub,” said O’Grady. “We’ll give more information on that once that’s been formalized over the next couple of days, hopefully.”

The Town purchased the Water Street property during a tax auction in August 2021 for $10,000, but has had no luck in finding a potential buyer despite sending the listing to commercial real estate agents and issuing repeat calls for expressions of interest in the building.

Following the purchase, council hired an engineering firm at a cost of $2,450, as it had laid abandoned for years, to conduct a visual assessment of the building before opening it for viewing by potential buyers.

Over the years, the building housed both a bank and a pub (as the name would indicate) and was for a time used as a storage area.

In other finance committee news, O’Grady noted during his update that the Town has collected 89 percent of property taxes, 83 percent of water and sewer taxes, and 93 percent of business taxes.