Pub operator JD Wetherspoon open a new pub in Maesteg this month (January) creating 50 full and part time jobs.
Newport chartered surveyors Hutchings & Thomas helped source and acquire the site for the pub operator.
JD Wetherspoon has spent £1.73 million developing the outlet, on the site of an existing pub the Sawyer’s Arms, in Commercial Street, Maesteg and the former New Theatre.
The New Theatre opened in 1914 with a musical and was soon showing films. It became a bingo hall in the early 1960s and closed in the 1990s
The Wetherspoon pub, which will open on Tuesday, January 20, will be called the Sawyer’s Arms and be managed by Rhys Kerr.
A distinctive stone facade extends across the front of the Sawyer’s Arms and the former theatre. The pub is a long-time feature of Commercial Street and recognised as a building of local importance.
Haydn Thomas, of Hutchings & Thomas Chartered Surveyors, which acts for JD Wetherspoon in South Wales seeking out potential new sites for the business, says the Maesteg location is ideal.
Mr Thomas said: “This is a superb site for JD Wetherspoon right in the heart of Maesteg. The development will inject a new dynamism into the town and will help boost the local economy not just through the creation of new jobs but through the confidence and wealth it will help to generate.”
The new-look pub features one bar, as well as a huge split level beer garden.
Pub manager Rhys Kerr said: “My team and I are looking forward to welcoming customers into the pub and we are confident that it will be a great addition to the Maesteg community.”
The Sawyer’s Arms will be open from 8am until 12 midnight Sunday to Thursday and 8am until 1am on Friday and Saturday. Food will be served throughout the day, from opening until 11pm, every day.
The pub will specialise in real ales and craft beers including those from local and regional brewers.