A Sheffield hotel is back on the market after being repossessed with the owners favouring the addition of a "high end" restaurant to make it successful.
Operators willing to install a ‘full service kitchen’ at the Psalter Hotel are being offered deals on rent as an incentive, according to Robin Curtis of agents SMC Brownhill Vickers.
The venue is to let after it closed without warning before Christmas. Mr Curtis revealed the owners - Psalter Property Company - had finally repossessed it after going to court. The tenants had been in since before Covid, he added.
He said: "The hotel side was running really well but obviously something has gone wrong. It’s got massive potential it just needs the right person."
Sheffield has a shortage of "good, high end restaurants," he added. And there was a wider trend among Michelin-starred operators to include accommodation.
Local venues that successfully combine food and hotel were Brocco on the Park, The Maynard at Grindleford, The George in Hathersage and Rafters at Riverside House Hotel, in Ashford in the Water, he added.
Mr Curtis said no accounts from the previous tenants were available but it seemed that while the 23-bedroom hotel had high occupancy rates, the bar hadn’t worked. It is advertised as having a 'breakfast restaurant'.
He acknowledged that over the years the Psalter had struggled to find a niche.
But there was space on the lower ground floor for a full kitchen which could offer a route to success as a 'destination restaurant' with accommodation.
The hotel had a 4.4 out of 5 rating on Google and a 4.5 'excellent' rating from 136 reviews on Tripadvisor.
It started life as two four-storey Victorian homes. They were joined with a two-storey extension and it opened as the Roslyn Court Hotel in the 1960s, later becoming the Psalter Tavern.
The building closed at the end of 2016 following the failure of operator, Parity Bars. It was snapped up in 2017, reportedly for more than £1.2m, and a planning application submitted soon after.
In 2020 a firm called JGAC Psalter Ltd applied planning permission for rear kitchen extension. That firm was wound up in September 2021.
3. Neon lights
There are lots of contemporary design touches including the hotel name in yellow neon lights.
