A hotel once owned by disgraced ex-Norton boss Stuart Garner has new owners.
According to StaffordshireLive, the Priest House Hotel in Castle Donington, on the Leicestershire/Derbyshire border, has been bought by part of the Yorkshire-based Brook Leisure Group which operates hotels, pubs, restaurants, and venues in the north of England.
The new owners are said to be “excited to commence working with the hotel team to re-establish The Priest House as one of the area’s premier hotels.”
Up until the start of 2020 the hotel was owned by Stuart Garner, who at the time also owned Donington Hall and Norton bikes, which had a factory in the Donington Hall grounds.
Administrators were called in in January of that year after the motorbike business got into significant financial problems.
After a two year investigation Mr Garner was last month given an eight-month jail sentence, suspended for two years, for using pension schemes linked to the firm to prop up the bike business when he still owned it.
He has also been disqualified from being a company director for three years and ordered to pay more than £20,000 in costs, despite being bankrupt.
Norton Motorbikes is now under new ownership and based in the West Midlands.
The Priest House stands on the banks of the River Trent, and has 42 bedrooms include romantic suites, family rooms and executive bedrooms.
Francis Hindle, hotels divisional manager at the Brook Group, said: “We are delighted with this latest acquisition to our portfolio.
“The hotel has a strong reputation locally for providing first class hospitality and we look forward to building on that as we look to nurture and enhance the offering over the coming months.”
Brook Group chief executive Jason Brook said: “We have worked hard over the last year to acquire the Priest House and we see it as an important part of our evolving strategy to develop a group of quality hotels in outstanding locations.
“This acquisition of the Priest House follows on from our purchase of the Aysgarth Falls Hotel in the stunning Yorkshire Dales last September and now takes our hotel portfolio to three sites, with a fourth planned in the South Welsh Valleys.
“We look forward to working closely with existing and new clients as we strive to put the Priest House back on the map.”
