The Apartment Group has bought two County Durham hotel properties, including the Jersey Farm Hotel, located just outside Barnard Castle.
The company said it was “beginning to see the light at the end of the tunnel” of the pandemic.
The group also acquired Whitworth Hall Hotel & Deer Park.
The company was planning to invest “millions of pounds” at both sites to create five-star boutique hotels aimed at the leisure, wedding and corporate market.
The Apartment Group’s COO Debrah Dhugga said: “The hospitality and leisure industry has been under a lot of strain as it deals with the current Covid-19 pandemic and our industry has seen many casualties. We have a reputation for creating innovative and marketing leading venues, and I can assure you that both these hotels will be exactly that. We’re so excited!”
The sales were completed by Mark Worley, director at Christie & Co. He said: “We are delighted to have sold these wonderful sites to The Apartment Group, continuing the long and successful relationship between our two firms. The sales point to the healthy demand for hospitality businesses in the north east region at present, particularly those which are able to host weddings and which are reliant on leisure-based trade. The foreign travel restrictions imposed upon us all, have benefitted the domestic pub and hotel industry and as wedding income has been pushed into next year and beyond, hospitality buyers can now see the financial appeal of purchasing this type of business.”