The Green Herring Restaurant is located in the historic Ginninderra Village in Gungahlin, near Cockington Green and the George Harcourt Inn.

The restaurant, which has been open for three decades, is inside a rustic slab hut, which was built in 1860 in the small NSW town of Bookham in the Yass Valley shire, and transported to Canberra in 1970.

Also on the site is the historic Ginninderra School House, which was built on-site in 1883.

However negotiations over lease renewal broke down and the restaurant will shut on December 22. In a newsletter circulated last week, the restaurant operators said they were "shocked and very upset" by the closure and were looking at other sites for 2019. They declined to comment when contacted by The Canberra Times.

Land owner Stan Waldren said he only became aware of the planned closure on Friday.

Mr Waldren said he had been in talks with the operators about terms of a new lease and had agreed to go month to month while negotiations continued. He said it was unfortunate the operators decided not to proceed with the negotiations, but acknowledged there had been other commercial factors at play.

Mr Waldren said a building survey needed to be done to assess the state of the complex and that getting insurance had been "challenging".

There were structural concerns and other compliance issues he was worried about, including the kitchen and disability access.

Mr Waldren had also spoken to government in the past about the commercial rates he was paying on the 12,000-metre site and told to come up with commercial solutions to the problem.

Nearby several major redevelopments are in train, with plans for a hotel at the site next door and talks under way about the residential redevelopment of part of the Gold Creek Golf Club.

Mr Waldren said he could not deny he had been weighing up redevelopment himself, but said there were no firm or imminent plans.

"There’s no question that the schoolhouse building that’s there since 1800s has heritage value, no doubt, and the other buildings brought in in more recent times including the Green Herring need to be looked at in terms of what needs to be done to make the site more viable in greater context what’s going on in the area," Mr Waldren said.

However, the Ginninderra Village Complex is on the ACT heritage register. The citation says original buildings must not be demolished other than in exceptional circumstances, including where they are "structurally unsound and beyond economic repair".

Mr Waldren said he was not trying to do anything other than to come up with the best solution for the site.

In the newsletter, the restaurant operators thanked their customers for their support over the past 10 years.