Fri, 27 May 2011 | COMMERCIAL PROPERTY
A landmark city building owned by Cheshire West and Chester Council is being put up for sale, with clear potential for a future as a luxury hotel.
The council is seeking offers in excess of £2 million for Backford Hall, a Jacobean mansion built in 1863, which comes with 24 acres of rolling wooded grounds and its own lake. It currently serves as the rather unlikely home of the council's departments for highways, trading standards and waste management, but staffing and budgetary cutbacks are seeing the departments downsized and key parts of their property portfolio sold off.
The former Cheshire County Council first bought the property in 1946 for just £10,000, but resources director, Julie Gill, said it has much more potential with a private owner and could provide the council with a much-needed financial boost.
"It certainly has a wonderful semi-rural location, convenient for the motorway, the zoo and Chester," she said. "While a hotel is the obvious option, other uses could include prestigious offices or perhaps even conversion back to a home of very real character and distinction."
The Grade II-listed building contains 40 rooms and features a galleried hall, mahogany staircase, twisted chimneys and ornamental ceilings.
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