A LANDMARK York hotel has gone on the market for £2 million after closing down earlier this year - and is attracting huge interest.

The 3-star Beechwood Close Hotel, a 14-bedroom hotel in Shipton Road, is available to buy or to let as a ‘prime redevelopment/ refurbishment opportunity.’

Agents Sanderson Weatherall say that to the rear of the hotel, there is also a two storey manager’s flat and a one bedroom flat above an adjoining garage.

They say that subject to the necessary planning consent, the property offers the potential for a variety of different potential uses including residential, institutional, care home or offices.

They say the property is conveniently positioned for access to the ‘sought after’ schools of St Peter’s and Bootham, and nearby attractions include Homestead Park, Clifton Ings and the River Ouse, with York city centre just a mile away along Clifton and Bootham.

Agent Ian Naylor said there had been a great deal of interest in the property, with prospective buyers interested in a range of possible uses, including converting the building to residential apartments or demolishing it to allow for a new residential development.

Others were interested in buying it to re-open it as a hotel, turn it into a specialist care home or even a church.

He said there had been an offer from a prominent businessman for it to become a church but this had not been proceeded with as yet and another prospective buyer was now very interested in the property for a different use.

Mr Naylor added that the property had been built as a Victorian villa, and it had been a hotel since at least the 1970s. The Press reported in 2007 how the hotel had been sold by Graham and Beverley Blythe to the Jinnah group, who intended to keep it as a traditional hotel and restaurant after a ‘sensitive’ refurbishment.

The Blythes had had a hand in running the hotel since 1974, and in 1985 had bought the property with Beverley’s parents, Tony and Barbara Spink, who retired in 1995. It had been run as a family business ever since.

Mr Naylor said it was the Jinnah group which had put the hotel on the market, having had a tenant running it as a hotel.