THE owner of a Basingstoke bar has reassured customers that it is not closing down, after the building it is located in was put up for sale.

The building in Wote Street, in Basingstoke’s Top of Town, has been marketed for sale on Right Move by Simmons and Sons for £1.8m and is described as a ground-floor and first-floor bar/nightclub plus retail shop, with rear car parking.

However, Ernie Phelps, who owns the nightclub Plush Lounge Bar, which is located in the building, said the nightclub business will remain open.

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He added: “The building is [up for sale]. We have 17 years left in our lease and we are inside the tenancy act which means we can renew our lease when it runs out.”

Right Move said the building was built in 1971 and is available for freehold ‘subject to the existing occupational lease’.

It advises interested parties that the building has a potential income of £125,000 a year, including rent of £85,000 from Plush Lounge Bar and an estimated £35,000 a year for 29 Wote Street which is vacant.