It's been an ice-cream parlour, a burger and takeaways stop, a steak house, a bar with pokies and karaoke, an alternative music venue, and most recently a craft beer house.

Now the iconic building that currently homes The Hop House will be destroyed.

David Stanway and Christine Hamilton will be pulling pints for a little longer before changing locations. Photo: Daniel Hines.

The site has been in the Mount since the mid-1970s according to current renter and The Hop House's David Stanway, and he knows the history of the place.

David's going to make sure the iconic site has its farewells from everybody. He's planning on setting up old photographs and memories for local and the building's enthusiasts alike to share and remember the site before it is demolished.

'A lot of people have had some pretty amazing life-changing times here. It'd be a shame if people that the building had meant something to just drove past one day and saw it was gone and thought: ‘Oh I wish I'd taken photos'.”

David says the building is scheduled to be demolished sometime early next year.

'We've got this summer, so we're looking to be open until at least February, then it's a month-by-month [basis].”

But why is the iconic building being bulldozed?

'Many leases in the Mount at any one time have a development clause in them, which allows the Mount to grow bigger and grow taller,” says David.

'We knew that when we moved in here, that our place had a development clause, but we took a gamble and thought it could roll on for five or six years, it has in the past, nothing has happened in this site for a long, long time and that clause has been in there.”

David says they're looking at a larger site in Wharf St, and he has big plans for a new home for The Hop House.

'We're sort of looking more at the town side of things because it's the centre of the hub now. We have customers that come from The Lakes, and as far away as Te Puna and Omokoroa.

'This time round, if we can pull it off, we can do everything we want to do and even look at putting a brewery in in the future, which would be awesome. Definitely we want to get into the producing side of things as well.”

So the building that has homed so many different businesses, has created so many memories, will have its nightcap and go to bed, and something new and modern will be built in its place.

'One thing is for sure,” says David, 'and that is that this will be the last summer for The Hop House in the old Cream Can building. There will be a number of events to celebrate this great building over summer as the clock counts down.”