By Tania Phillips
Once known as the Langham Hotel – the Condamine Sports Club has looked out proudly over Palmerin Street in Warwick for more than a hundred years.
It has been watering hole, meeting place and landmark during that time and Club Manager Stephen Domjahn hopes the renovations and expansion that have just been undertaken will allow the beautiful venue to serve the community for another century at least.
For the past six months the club has been extending sideways – taking over the sites of two former shops next door, to give them much-needed room.
Mr Domjahn said the work has included a new function room/dining space as well as upgrading the Gaming Room to make it more modern and spacious.
Work on the dining space in the existing building – creating extra dining space and on creating a brand-new function room is expected to be finished imminently.
He said the soft opening would be held on 20 October with the official opening on 20 November.
Thanks to the new renovations the club will now have seating (No functions) for approximately 200, seating (with function) for around 120 and the new function room will seat between 60-80.
“Hopefully we will get it back Friday but they (the builders) do have until the 19th but they are trying to wrap up by this Friday,” Mr Domjahn said earlier in the week.
He said the club would be “pretty much the same” structurally but with an added function room.
“It’s something we’ve probably been missing out on,” Mr Domjahn added.
“We can get about 70-80 people – a nice little function. It has it’s own kitchen, a projector. It’s secluded too from the club – I can isolate it.
“The Pokie room – I haven’t upped my pokies – there are still 74 of them but we’ve changed the layout, giving a bit more space. With Covid, it’s always in the back in people’s minds it’s to make people have that distancing.
“If you go for a walk through there you will get the feel of it. A lot of people say it looks like a casino – that’s the biggest comment I’ve got from a lot of people but the comments have all been positive. Everyone is loving it. They like the flow of the whole room. Even the smell of the fresh carpet.”
While this area is complete Mr Domjahn has big plans for the old building.
“As soon as Hutchisons are finished, I’m buying more carpet so we can do the other part of the club. We also have plans – well, I’ve got plans but it’s up to the committee to say yes or no because I work for them. But I’d like to change the bar around and updating a lot of the airconditioners.
“This is the prime-time to do a lot of that stuff and get it going well. The club is going nicely.
“I have plans on going up to the second level of the new part as well – that might be five years down the track.”
He said the second level would allow the venue to host weddings and functions of 200-250 people while they were hoping to host smaller functions of all types from family reunions to Christmas parties in the new section now.
“Eighty people is a nice size to have for a car club function or something like that,” he added.
The club will begin booking private functions after 20 November – just in time for Christmas Parties and Mr Domjahn hopes to have the $11,000 Christmas draw back later in the year.
