Crown-owned company Otakaro Limited has transferred 2200 square metres of land on St Asaph St to the Ministry of Education.

A Christchurch Irish pub's closure may make way for a school's return to the central city.

Stuff understands the site of the Irishman Pub on St Asaph St has been picked as the future location of Ao Tawhiti School.

The special character school was formed from the merger of Unlimited Paenga Tawhiti and Discovery One in the post-earthquake schools restructure.

GRANT MATTHEW/FAIRFAX NZ The Irishman Pub is being forced to close with the site picked as the location for a central city school.

Prior to the earthquakes they were located in the central city.

Both schools used the city library, Hagley Park, sports facilities, Ara and Science Alive!, to make up for the facilities they did not have.

Now they operate from split sites in Halswell and Ilam.

Crown-owned company Otakaro Limited confirmed it transferred 2200m2 of land at 177-185 Asaph St to the Ministry of Education.

The section includes part of the vacant gravelled area beside The Irishman.

The ministry would not confirm its intention for the site, which sits within the crown's South Frame anchor project, and is directly opposite a strip of bars and restaurants, including Cafe Valentino, Baretta and Engineers.

An announcement could be up to six weeks away, a spokesman said.

The land was compulsorily bought by the crown more than two years ago.

Irishman co-owners Mike Kane and Nik Dodgehave been operating on a monthly lease since.

Last Friday, they were told they had just four weeks to vacate the building.

Kane wanted to know why the Irishman's site was chosen, when there was so much "empty land" in the area.

The business employed 25 staff. Live entertainment had been booked months in advance.

The bar was looking for a new site to minimise disruption for staff.

They requested an extension to the timeframe, but they were told it was not possible, as the new owners intended to develop the site, he said.

Ao Tawhiti director Steven Mustor said he had heard a lot of "rumbles" within the community about the location of a future site, but he had not been told anything by the ministry.

Mustor said staff and pupils had waited more than five years to return to the city centre.

The original schools' buildings, opposite each other in Cashel Mall, were damaged in the February 2011 earthquake.

The merged school was due to occupy a new building on the old Holiday Inn site, across from Stranges Lane in 2017, but negotiations fell through.

Mustor said when he took the job in 2013, he was assured the school would be back in the central city by September this year.

"It's unfortunate it hasn't worked, and the idea that it might be a couple more years, there's a firm frustration there."

The St Asaph St site was "just across the road" from the bus interchange, Mustor said, so it was an ideal location.

He said the school's new site would be built for about 660 students, which was the combined pre-quake roll of both schools.