While one of Lismore's iconic pubs was announced as being rebuilt on Friday (Durheim's buy the Northern Rivers Hotel), another is on the market.

The Hotel Metropole or The Met, as it is colloquially known, is for sale with expressions of interest over $3 million.

Nick and Kerrilee Lake purchased the property in 2021 and began renovating the derelict building that had it's doors closed since 2016.

The Met was Nick's first foray into pubs. His main business and passion is in renewable energy through the ownership of local solar company Nickle Energy for the last 15 years.

(Owner Nick Lake downstairs in the main bar of The Met)

"Well, I guess my office is just down Larkham Lane, so I would come past it every day and look at this building and thought the town could do with another option. A bit of a folly, own a pub and have a crack at one not realising how hard work it is to start from scratch. There was no equipment, there was no systems and no people. I'd done some hospitality in my 20s, but I had never run a pub."

"It's been pretty challenging, there's a lot of people involved running a hotel. So you got to build and keep a good team which we've done so I'm proud of that. There's a lot of lingo in a new industry, so you've got to learn how that works and pubs are pretty special on that front."

You have to feel sorry for Nick and his team. They completed two renovations in two years.

Once the first rebuild was complete after purchase, the doors swung open for the first time in December 2021. It was open for 11 weeks before the big flood in February 2022 completed destroyed the new renovations. But, it only took Nick eight days to open the rooftop bar.

"The day after the flood we were in here hosing out and as people could come and help they did. As we know you couldn't get into town for a good few days after the flood. We had it all cleaned up up there and got a generator on, borrowed a kegerator for the beer. We just turned on the lights and we were it, there wasn't much else going on in town for a fair while."

The good part of reopening your business quickly was you got to keep your staff, both full-time and casuals.

Nick also opened the first CBD bottle shop post flood when he purchased a refrigerated shipping container.

"Then three days after we opened that, the second flood came. We had to pack it all up so we saved most of the stock but the shipping container we couldn't get moved in time so the refrigeration motor on that seized and I had to fix that. We got going again a few days later."

"The flood rebuild kept my team together and kept our dream alive. I could still pay staff still. We split the team between fixing up inside where a lot of the team became tradies because we couldn't find anyone else so they were doing plastering and all sorts of repairs."

"We had the main bar open again after about four or five months. It was mid year before we got that open last year."

12 months later Nick has decided the for sale sign is going up. Why is that?

"It's no fault of the pub, it's great. We love it and it's going well. But my life is a juggle between Nickel Energy, my local solar installation business and another renewable energy project we run in Sydney called Energy Lab and the family. We've got teenage kids that I've not seen a lot of them over the last year because of the extra time needed to rebuild."

"It wasn't an easy decision. It took some time to sort of finally go, yep, something's gotta give."

As for the interest in buying Hotel Metropole?

"There's been some interest certainly. There's an open expression of interest period at the moment, that will close at the end of the month. From the interest we're getting we expect to get some offers. There are some locals that have shown some interest and some from out of the area. I think they're inheriting a pretty great pub."

The ad running in Commercial Real Estate says:

Completely renovated and refurbished hotel in the heart of a very diverse and dynamic Far North Coast CBD.

You can check out the add here.

As for what is on the horizon for Nick?

"I need to catch my breath. So, a little break for the family. I'm committed to Lismore though. I'll be more focused on the solar. There are some good projects and opportunities there."