A popular pub in Morecambe town centre is going up for sale and its licensee has promised "a summer to remember".
The Palatine building at 1 The Crescent will soon be going on the market, its owners have confirmed.
The popular pub is owned by Lancaster Brewery, who acquired and refurbished the premises in 2008.
Phil Simpson, director at Lancaster Brewery, said the premises would go up for sale "in a couple of months" after some work is carried out on the building to "give it some TLC".
The pub remains open with business as usual.
Bru Wood, who has been in charge as the tenant at The Palatine since 2017, posted the news on the pub's Facebook page on Thursday.
"It seems loose lips and rumours are arising with concerns about our future here at The Palatine," he said.
"We were hoping for a bit more time to divulge a plan going forward but it seems the rumours are travelling faster with information we don’t even know ourselves so we thought we let you guys know what’s going on.
"We can now confirm our Brewery have made the difficult decision to put our building up for sale.
"The Brewery guys have been amazing with us over the last 8/9 years and we have and always will have a great relationship with them and totally understand their decision.
"There maybe a possibility for us to buy. There maybe a choice to carry on our lease with the new owners.
"There’s always a possibility of finding a new venue to carry on.
"Or I may just hang up my waistcoat and call it a day altogether.
"We just don’t know that much at the moment and these things don’t happen over night so we’re not going anywhere anytime soon.
"But with that, if this is to be our final summer then we’re gonna make sure it’s a summer to remember.
"Thank you and all our love.
"The Palatine Family."
The Palatine has been a key venue for the Morecambe Music Festival over the past few years. The building is also home to The Mad Hunter restaurant.
Mr Simpson explained the reason for putting the building on the market.
"It's a very amicable situation," he said.
"The Palatine works as a tenanted pub and it's been brilliant. But do we want to keep doing tenanted businesses forever? We are more of a freehold business. Long-term (tenanted pubs) are not our USP and it's a little too small for us to run as a managed pub."
A freehold pub is owned outright and is sometimes run by a manager, while a tenanted pub is operated by a tenant who pays rent to the owner.
The Palatine is located on the corner of Queen Street and Marine Road, close to the former Queens Hotel bar and nightclub which has been closed for several years, and is on the market.
"We are all waiting for the renaissance of Queen Street," said Mr Simpson.
"The Queens Hotel is still to be sold. That's a fantastic site if someone was to invest in it.
"Everybody is waiting for (the) Eden (Project) and when it happens, Queen Street is going to be a fantastic street in Morecambe."
Lancaster Brewery is based at Lancaster Leisure Park. The company also owns The Sun Hotel in Lancaster city centre, The Duke of Edinburgh at Barrow, The Mill at Ulverston and The Tite & Locke at Lancaster Railway Station.
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