Nice back garden: the Selsdon hotel, after a £15m modernisation, is on the market
The former Selsdon Park Hotel and its 198-acre estate has been put up for sale through estate agents Savills less than two months since it went out of business as boutique hipster resort Birch Selsdon.
The sale, on behalf of administrators, should end rumours among residents’ groups in South Croydon that the 181-room hotel was to be taken over by the Home Office to provide accommodation for refugees whose immigration applications they have delayed processing.
Birch Selsdon closed in November 2023, following a £15.3million refurbishment over 18 months which had transformed the slightly faded, old-style country house hotel, and now included a “wellness” centre, pottery and weaving classes, a re-wilded golf course, lido, three bars, co-working space and two restaurants run by chef Lee Westcott.
“There remains several value-enhancing initiatives in place to improve top-line performance and Net Operating Income,” according to Savills, so all that refurb work wasn’t entirely a waste of time.
Members’ club: Birch installed several new facilities, such as the gym
Birch Selsdon operated as a membership club, charging £150 per person per month. According to Savills, it had attracted 640 members. But it closed after barely six months of operation due to “cash constraints”.
Around 100 full- and part-time workers lost their jobs.
Birch Hospitality and real estate investment firm Aprirose also opened Birch Cheshunt in Hertfordshire in 2020 – like Selsdon, they acquired it from De Vere – but that went into administration the same week last November.
Savills is seeking to sell a long lease on Birch Selsdon and part freehold interest in the estate, with “price on application”.
A Savills agent told The Caterer: “We anticipate strong interest from the market for this opportunity, appealing to a diverse range of capital sources and accommodating various business plans and asset preferences.”
Read more: 100 to lose jobs as Selsdon Birch hotel closes its doors
Read more: Administrators move in to run Selsdon’s ‘shabby chic’ hotel
Read more: Get orf moy laaand! Posh hotel declares parkland a no-go zone
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Maybe Croydon council could buy it by offering above the asking price, and then fail to justify themselves to the council tax payers who ultimately funded the extravagance.
They didn’t even pay all the staff their wages and lied to HMRC saying they did pay.
Wonder who owns the lease? Selling lease with part freehold seems unusual?
It would be good to get some stability at the hotel, both for the people who work there and local people who use it. I wasn’t a fan of trying to turn it into a private members club but I think a combined workspace and hotel with top quality food and drink in a venue like this should work – if it has a backer with a long-term plan.
I also hope that this announcement will put an end to the ridiculous rumours but sadly there seems to be a growing number of these coming out of far-right social media groups. A quick glance at any of the anti-ULEZ groups provides plenty of evidence that you can fool some of the people all of the time.
Now now Peter – Too many Political Parties rely on being able to fool most of the people all the time, Would that make them just better con artists?
So some of the site is being sold with freehold rights. The location is starting it’s journey into private residential housing.
Interesting point.
Who are these residents groups wondering if immigrants would be housed there. I would love to meet some of them!
When we stayed last August staff were pleasant and responsive flash fried a luke warm steak and replaced blunt ordinary knife with a steak serrated knife ; and let us in our late 80’s split one breakfast between us…… but only 10 guests there not the thrumming 50+ including Biggin Hill flight crews. Why de Vere sold is a mystery ? Hope they or someone similar purchase and that the old Selsdon Park Hotel is revived. Was a Selsdon resident 1939 – 1984 and my brothers worked there in the summer holidays, and in the Stables.
My understanding is that the only part of the operation (prior to the sell-off to Birch) that was profitable was the golf course. So, yeah, that the new owners decided to close the course was, um, an “interesting” decision.
We’re hoping that new owners will re-open the course so that our club can move back there.
When i worked there in the late eighties,early nineties i was proud to do so it was run fantastically and always full and busy. Birch ruined it and have had their just desserts,i do hope it is reverted back to how it was with the golf course bought back.