THE former Royal Oak pub in Wombwell is now boarded up and is available for let as the co-owners are seeking an investor to set up a business there.
The pub on Church Street was bought in a cut price deal in October last year by Wakefield-based investor Ayub Mohammed and local businessman Ghazanfair Ali who runs the Balti Palace Indian restaurant on Wombwell High Street.
Mr Mohammed, 40, says he has heard plenty of ideas about what local people would like the building to be used for but is yet to speak to any serious investors.
Tentative enquiries into the cost of transforming at least part of the building into flats have put off the owners.
He said: "A popular idea has been for a Chinese restaurant but we are Indian, we do not know anything about Chinese food.
"If someone with expertise and money was going to come in then we would be happy to talk to them.
"When we have been clearing it out people have asked what we're doing with it so we know there is a lot of interest locally.
"For the money we paid for it, it would be too expensive to knock it into flats. It just did not make economical sense.
"We are investors. The reason we bought it is because it was really cheap.
"We do have other business interests other than this so we would like to let it out but we would also consider a serious sale offer."
The building is now up for let with an estate agent and is currently sealed off to prevent from break-ins.
