permanent opening slated for April 1 as it returns to its original format.

Local businessman Nelson Hunt revealed yesterday that he would be opening Pier Six for business this evening during Happy Hour.

The bar and restaurant will then herald the start of the tourist season with a full scale opening at the beginning of next month.

When contacted yesterday, Mr. Hunt said the direction the new facility would take was still being decided upon.

And he pointed out that Pier Six had been used for a number of private parties over the past five months and had not sat unused.

He said he had decided not to open the business full-time until April 1 because there was not enough available business to warrant it. Pier Six, which fills the 6,000-square-foot lower level of the Number Six Shed is owned by Inner Harbour Limited, of which Mr. Hunt is the President.

He leased the building from the Corporation of Hamilton and opened the original Pier Six bar and restaurant at the location on March 8, 1996.

Since then he and two other operators have struggled to make the business work. Pier Six ceased operations on January 1, 1998 and Mr. Hunt handed management of the club over to Elbow Beach who promptly refurbished the interior and reopened it in April of that year under the new name The Surf Club.

Paget Partners Limited then took over the bar and restaurant from Elbow Beach the following April.

They reopened it on May 6 as a steak house and sushi bar featuring a micro-brewery run by the Bermuda Triangle Brewing Company and star entertainer Jimmy Keys.

But they were forced to close on October 30 after the operators revealed it was losing money. Interest in the vacant site was then shown by Studio 55 boss John Kiernan and MEF Limited's director Emilio Barbieri but Mr. Hunt entered a new three year lease with the Corporation and decided to reopen it himself as the original Pier Six.

Yesterday Mr. Hunt stressed: "We believe in the hospitality industry as it employs so many people. If everyone was to pick up their marbles and run away every time something went wrong there would be nobody here.''