Chesterfield Hotel goes up for sale

The prominent Malkin Street site has stood empty for over a year and become a magnet for crime.

Eddisons Commercial Ltd is now marketing the building with a rateable value of £124,000.

A brochure states: "The property comprises a substantial brick built hotel dating from the Victorian period providing accommodation principally over three floors and a basement. The property comprises 73 letting rooms with extensive restaurant, ballroom and function rooms and a leisure suite with a pool. There is on-site parking for about 60 vehicles."

As reported earlier this week, the company behind Chesterfield Hotel owed creditors almost three quarters of a million pounds before it shut.

A balance sheet submitted to Companies House last Thursday revealed GS Trading VI (Chesterfield) Ltd owed £727,235.

The document is dated December 31, 2014, and classes the money as due within a year.

Forty-five members of staff lost their jobs when Chesterfield Hotel shut on January 31, 2015, and workers are currently going through the employment tribunal process over alleged unpaid wages and redundancy payouts.

Meanwhile, customers who were left hundreds of pounds out of pocket when the hotel’s leisure centre closed in 2014 are still wondering when - or if - they will be refunded.

GS Trading VI (Chesterfield) Ltd, which is still listed as an active firm, has always refused to answer the Derbyshire Times' questions about the unpaid money.

In January, Companies House warned the business that it faced the axe after it failed to file documentation on time.

However, the Government agency discontinued its threat last month after receiving the company's annual return and accounts.

If the firm had been dissolved, Chesterfield Hotel would have become property of the Crown.

The abandoned building is currently under constant security surveillance and boards cover a number of ground-floor windows which have been smashed by vandals.

Chesterfield Hotel was a major employer and social venue for almost 140 years, making it one of the town's longest-running businesses.

The exact reason for the hotel's closure has never been revealed - but the town's MP Toby Perkins held urgent talks with representatives from the business to discuss various financial problems before it shut.

In January, Spanish businessman Malcolm Aw resigned as a director of GS Trading VI (Chesterfield) Ltd.

The 68-year-old, of Adeje, Tenerife, told the Derbyshire Times he wanted nothing more to do with the company.

He had intended to allow the building to be used by organisations which help vulnerable people - but this never happened.

GS Trading VI (Chesterfield) Ltd's sole director and only shareholder, 71-year-old businessman Daniel James O'Doherty, also owns several other hotel companies across the country, including GS Trading IV (Derby) Ltd, GS Trading VII (Liverpool) Ltd and GS Trading I (Gloucester).