The Alternative Hotel Group has gone to market with two De Vere Venues hotels that had been earmarked for Richard Balfour-Lynn’s aborted Vector hospitality REIT.
Christie + Co has been appointed to sell The Mill and Old Swan , a 62-bedroom hotel in Minster Lovell, near Oxford, and Branksome Place, a 60-bedroom listed hotel with 32 acres of grounds in the Surrey town of Haslemere.
In June of this year, Balfour-Lynn’s much-hyped Vector Hospitality vehicle was shelved because of shaky market conditions and criticism from major investors about the proposed REIT’s management.
Balfour-Lynn’s MWB had planned to sell its Malmaison and Hotel du Vin hotel assets to Vector and lease them back.
Balfour-Lynn separately has a circa 25% stake in the Alternative Hotel Group, which was to sell a £2.6bn portfolio to Vector.
The two venues now being sold are considered non-core by AHG to its De Vere Venues training centres and conferencing business.
Jeremy Jones, director of corporate hotels at Christie + Co, said: “Both properties currently specialise in the residential training and conference market, but offer the opportunity for further growth and development to significantly improve the hotel element of the business and enhance leisure trade.”
