There was a sense of anticipation as Wagga's iconic Victoria Hotel officially changed hands this week.
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Six weeks after announcement of its record $29 million sale hit the news, the Harvest Hotels Directors Fraser Haughton and Chris Cornforth officially took over the pub on Monday.
Mr Haughton said he's glad the changeover is now over.
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He said Monday had that "feeling of just waiting until it's yours. But now it's all over and we're pretty excited."
"Most people know The Vic. It's a bit of an institution and we've been looking at it for quite some time so it's nice to finally be in and have the keys," Mr Haughton said.
Mr Haughton is based at Orange, while Mr Cornforth lives in Sydney. It is the second Wagga pub to be bought out by the group, after purchasing The William Farrer Hotel in July 2021.
The local face of the pub has also changed, with longtime publican Harry Vearing bidding farewell and handing the keys over his second in charge, Matt Lloyd Jones.
Looking ahead, Mr Haughton said the new owners have no immediate plans.
"In the short term, we hope to get our feet under the desk and get to know the pub. You see a lot on the surface, but you don't really know until you're in and operating it," he said.
"For now, we want to get to know all the staff and make sure it's business as usual for all our patrons. It will continue to operate as it has been and be welcoming and provide people with the service they need."
Mr Haughton said while there are plans to renovate the premises, nothing has been set in concrete as yet.
"We hope to have that sorted out in the next three to four months," he said.
Hinting at a few possibilities, Mr Haughton said they would like to "marry up the ground floor a little bit better" to improve "flow" and help open it up more.
"We also want to do something upstairs. We've got a huge space up there, a lot of which is not used. So there's a huge opportunity to renovate and make that a bigger function space," he said.
Harvest Hotels is a Sydney-based group that owns seven hotels across NSW.
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