{"id":572120,"date":"2026-08-17T22:38:10","date_gmt":"2026-08-17T22:38:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/572120\/"},"modified":"2026-08-17T22:38:10","modified_gmt":"2026-08-17T22:38:10","slug":"owners-close-iconic-hastings-bar-common-room-after-alleged-arson-attack","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/572120\/","title":{"rendered":"Owners close iconic Hastings bar Common Room after alleged arson attack"},"content":{"rendered":"

Common Room owners Chris Whyte and Fiona (Fi) Lee wrote on social media that the fire, and the \u201congoing challenges\u201d of running a late-night venue meant the time was right to bring their public bar ownership to a close.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is with a heavy heart, and much consideration, we have made the difficult decision to close Common Room.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo our amazing team, talented artists, and loyal customers, thank you for everything and for your support over the last 2 years.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt this stage, Common Room will be available for private events and venue hire only.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"ChrisChris Whyte, centre, and Fiona Lee, left, outside The Common Room when they reopened it. Photo \/ Mitchell Hageman<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have put our heart and soul into Common Room over the last two years, and we are so grateful for everything this space has meant to so many people.\u201d<\/p>\n

A police spokesperson said officers were made aware of multiple arsons in the Hastings area between 2am and 3.15am on Saturday morning. <\/p>\n

\u201cThese incidents occurred around the Hastings CBD and Akina residential areas.<\/p>\n

\u201cSome incidents involved the alleged offender lighting vehicles on fire and damaging property.<\/p>\n

A 47-year-old was taken into custody in the Havelock North area and police were now appealing for information from the public to assist inquiries. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe would also like to hear from anyone who may have information to any alleged arson incidents within the Hastings and Havelock North areas this weekend. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re pleased to have held this alleged offender to account and hope this arrest brings reassurance to our communities.\u201d<\/p>\n

The man was due to appear in Hastings District Court yesterday, facing five charges of arson, attempted arson and disorderly behaviour.<\/p>\n

\"AA fire behind Common Room in Hastings in the early hours of Saturday morning. <\/p>\n

The Common Room has faced challenges in recent years.<\/p>\n

In 2024, it was subject to noise complaints from guests at a new Quest Hotel nearby.<\/p>\n

\"AlexiaAlexia Barbarouses took over running of the bar recently. Photo \/ Rafaella Melo<\/p>\n

Then owner Gerard Barron said at the time it could no longer run its popular outdoor music events due to the complaint invoking council noise restrictions.<\/p>\n

Barron left shortly afterwards and Whyte and Lee, owners of the popular Off The Track restaurant, embarked on a major fit-out of the bar, reopening it in September 2024. <\/p>\n

A serious brawl<\/a> at the bar left several people injured earlier this year, and court proceedings are ongoing.<\/p>\n

Just weeks ago, Whyte and Lee handed over the day-to-day management to Alexia Barbarouses<\/a>, who told Hawke\u2019s Bay Today she wanted to transform the space.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Common Room owners Chris Whyte and Fiona (Fi) Lee wrote on social media that the fire, and the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":572121,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[74,1554,53,89,17181,651,8344,5194,42,16569,43,9769,16784,40,38,41,39],"class_list":["post-572120","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-after","tag-alleged","tag-arson","tag-attack","tag-bar","tag-close","tag-common","tag-hastings","tag-headlines","tag-iconic","tag-news","tag-owners","tag-room","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/572120","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=572120"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/572120\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/572121"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=572120"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=572120"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=572120"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}