The owners of the Great Northern Hotel are forging ahead with plans to restore the building's 88 hotel rooms, despite a delay in appointing a lead builder.
Kurt Braune, a spokesman for Sydney-based owner Bass Elhashem, said last year that the art deco hotel could reopen to guests in the middle of 2019, but the upstairs floors of the Great Northern have remained largely idle since then.
The hotel's downstairs bars opened in November last year after closing in 2015.
The hotel rooms have not been used for 25 years, but the owner has gained approval to restore the building as a guest house with a first-floor bar and new roof-top bar and restaurant.
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Mr Braune said the owner was "very eager" to lock in a builder and hoped to start work early next year.
"It's about the pricing at the moment," he said.
"There's a lot of activity in the [bars], which has deterred some builders, and there's a bit of price gouging."
Mr Elhashem is also looking for an operator to run the hotel.
The refurbishment project has been beset by legal battles, closures and building issues dating back to before the 1989 earthquake.
Mr Braune bought the hotel in 2003, lodged plans for its restoration the following year but sold it in 2013.
Mr Elhashem revived the restoration in 2015 and appointed Mr Braune to oversee the project.
The hotel is listed by the NSW Office of Environment and Heritage as an item of state significance.
It says the building has "one of the few intact examples of a 'jazz-style' interior", although its exterior has been compromised by 1950 additions.
The latest plans include a row of six cantilevered balconies on the first floor.
