The Captain Cook Hotel in Dunedin has closed until a "suitable" new operator can be found.

One of the country's oldest and most iconic bars, The Captain Cook Hotel, has shut its doors.

A consortium of 17 investors bought the bar, affectionately known to generations of Otago students as 'The Cook' , and spent an undisclosed sum transforming the Dunedin venue to a gastro pub for its May 2016 reopening.

The pub made national headlines when it closed its doors in June 2013, due to declining revenue.

SCOTT CLARKE/STUFF Dunedin's Captain Cook Hotel was refurbished and reopened as a gastro pub in May 2016.

"With great regret, the shareholders and management of The Captain Cook Hotel advise that the business will no longer be open for trade until a suitable buyer can be found," the pub's backers said in a statement to Stuff this week.

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Joe Higham, co-editor of student magazine Critic, said he had fond memories of the pub and its sticky floors, cheap jugs and good music when he started at Otago University in 2011.

HAMISH McNEILLY/STUFF A sign on the Captain Cook Hotel last week said it was "closed for renovation", but its investors have since confirmed it will stay closed until a new operator is found.

He used to go to the pub every Thursday and Saturday, but felt the re-branding made it "too upmarket".

It was one of several student pubs to close in recent years, along with the Gardens Tavern and The Bowler, but he believed there was still potential for a student bar in the area.

"The amount of drinking students engage in has probably been the same for decades, but the price for alcohol at off-licences has gone down while in bars and clubs the price has gone up.

"It is just easier to get alcohol and drink at your house and then go to a bar to meet your friends."

Otago University Students' Association president Hugh Baird confirmed the association and the university had looked at possible student venues over the last year.

The Cook was an unlikely spot for a future student bar though because it was outside the campus, he said.

At its reopening last year, tenant and operations manager Sheldon Lye said he could not put a cost on the project, but admitted it was "lucky that I had understanding friends that helped me fund it".

"This wasn't a big money-making idea, but we've saved it."

The pub's doors were shut last week and a sign in the window said "closed for renovation", but it reopened on Saturday for a gig featuring former Dunedin band Sneaky Feelings.

In recent months, the venue hosted gigs by Shayne Carter, The Chills and a music panel for the the biennial Dunedin Writers And Readers Festival.

The investors said they planned to "refurbish the iconic Dunedin establishment and then offer it for sale to a suitable operator".

A suitable operator has not yet been found, and the business remains for sale.

The consortium hoped the "opportunity to take on the site for the future will be embraced by a new operator".

They acknowledged the help they had received from a supportive landlord, patrons, suppliers and staff.