Historic Live Venue The Espy Is Up For Sale

St Kilda's historic live music venue The Esplanade Hotel – aka The Espy – has been put on the market.

Notable for claiming to be Australia longest-running venue with continuous live music, The Australian reports that the venue has been put on the market through Jones Lang Lasalle. The current owners, who are believed to be from the group who purchased the venue in 2001, are looking to retain the property's freehold while offering a long-term lease to potential buyers. They will also listen to offers for the freehold, the newspaper reports.

As with any sale of a venue tied to live music, it is impossible to determine the impact a sale will have on live music until the new owners outline their intentions. The venue, which has long been the target of development plans, is advertised as having revenue streams from live music, its bars, the Espy Kitchen, functions, the bottle shop and venue hire.

The hotel has a license until 3am and a capacity of 1,750.

Another Melbourne music venue on the market is Fitzroy's Yah Yah's, which is being sold through Just Business Brokers. The 5am license is a strong selling point for the 250-capacity venue, which claims to generate a weekly profit of $4,500 through sales of $22,000.

Yah Yah's current stakeholders have told theMusic.com.au that it is 'business as usual' for live music while the venue is on the market but any plans beyond that will be up to any new owners. Offers on the venue are asked to be lodged by 28 March.