According to Ray White Hotels, which is handling the sale, the "affordable" pub made weekly gaming profits of about $20,000 in 2014, and is being sold with a 24-hour liquor licence, 15 hotel rooms and the potential for another 10 rooms.

Ray White hotel broker Blake Edwards said the owners had done "a lot of necessary repairs and refurbished the rooms" in the past 16 months, but had decided to go in different directions.

"It's not acrimonious, they just have different ideas on what they want to do," Mr Edwards said.

The old building, known by locals as "the top pub", was on a large block of land with lots of car parks, and occupied a prominent place in Port Kembla.

"It's certainly going to benefit from the revitalisation, because I understand that the consortium that lease the actual port or Port Kembla is going to turn it into a major freight terminal, which would undoubtedly have an effect on the Steelworks Hotel," he said.

The Wentworth Street venue was built in 1912 and originally named the Great Eastern Hotel.

In 1921 the hotel was bought by Tooths, and later the Lindsay family, before being renovated in 1938.

Wollongong City Council heritage documents describe the hotel as "an imposing landmark of the area, dating back to the beginnings of the town as a port and industrial centre".

It was bought at auction in 2009 by a consortium for $1.87 million before being returned to the market in February 2013 following a partnership dissolution.

According to Australian Property Monitors it sold for just over $1 million in November that year.

Expressions of interest for the hotel close on March 26.