City Pub Co has secured a site in Southampton – its fourth coastal pub, MCA has learnt.
Chairman Clive Watson told MCA the company had exchanged on the freehold of The Varsity, a currently closed sports bar in Southampton’s London Road for £1.5m.
He said a significant refurbishment would be undertaken with the likelihood that it would become a brewpub. It will be rebranded although a new name has not yet been chosen.
He said with the recent acquisition of the Inn on the Beach at Hayling Island and the planned re-opening of Smuggler’s in Brighton in June, it would make four City Pub Co sites on the south coast.
He said: “We are starting to build a little hub down there. We’re really pleased to get one in Southampton because it’s been somewhere we’ve been looking at for a while.”
The Varsity will be the company’s 26th pub.
Earlier this month Watson told MCA that he plans to grow the company to grow to 35 sites by late 2017 before listing on AIM.
Savills acted for City Pub Co in the deal with Brightbeech Property.
