The future of a popular Northbridge small bar is in limbo after the owners were ordered out of the premises with less than three weeks notice.

Picabar opened its doors in the Perth Cultural Centre in early 2012 within a space that had been boarded up for more than a decade.

The bar was originally subleased through the Perth Institute of Contemporary Arts for a period of six months with a promise of a further 10-year option once the arts group’s own lease with the State government was renewed later that year.

But Picabar owners Brian Buckley and Melissa Bowen told 6PR radio this morning that while PICA’s lease was never renewed — and has since been running month-to-month — they claimed to have received assurances from government department chiefs that they could stay on when a long-term deal was eventually signed.

But they learnt in a letter last Thursday that while PICA would now get a new lease through the Perth Theatre Trust, it would not cover the bar space. They must now compete through an expressions on interest process to secure the venue.

The letter gave the bar, which employs 15 most young staff, until November 13 to leave but they have now been told they can stay on while the EOI process takes place.

Mr Buckley told 6PR he opened the business with his brother in 2012 to create “a bar for the local artistic community”.

He said while the bar had become a popular hub in the cultural centre a month-to-month lease arrangement had not given him or Ms Bowen the financial security to invest more heavily in the business.

“It is a beautiful building in a really important space but it needs a lot of work,” Ms Bowen told 6PR’s Gareth Parker.

“Nobody really cared about that government asset when it was boarded up for so long … nobody really cared about it then and nobody really cared about it in the time that we have been there. No-one has done any work on the building or given us the security to be able to invest our own money in the building.

“Now that opportunity is being realised, with the new museum coming online … it looks like it’s going to be handed to someone else and I would not be surprised if there a lot more interest in it now that we’ve build something in it than there was in 2012.”

Mr Buckley said the business had proved it could be a success, saying 15 venues had closed within a few minutes’ walk of Picabar in the past 18 months.