As the recession blows itself out across most of the country one of Britain’s traditional holiday resorts has yet to recover from the financial storm with more than 100 of its leisure properties up for sale — at a collective price tag of £20m.
Scores of hotels, restaurants, nightclubs, bars and takeaways in the heart of Blackpool are being off-loaded as businesses either collapse or struggle to cope with fierce competition and falling visitor numbers.
Hardest hit are the seaside town’s hoteliers, many of whom are facing a long hard season attempting to fill rooms. Others have simply given up, which accounts for the 73 hotels — with a collective value of £17.3m — already on the estate agents’ books.
Among the better known are: The Kensington Hotel, on Blackpool’s South Promenade, with a £1m asking price; the Bedford Hotel, on New South Promenade, which is on the market for £975,000, and the Silversands Hotel, up for sale at £875,000.
A lack of tourists is not the only problem. “One of the reasons we’re struggling to sell hotels is because the banks are still unwilling to lend people money,” explains Paul Crossley, managing director at Kenricks estate agents. “There are still willing clients, but a serious shortfall in funds available.”
Further down the scale, the attraction of Blackpool’s legendary boarding houses has also disappeared, for both owners and potential guests. Jonny Cuddy, of Michael Cuddy estate agents, has several on his books. “There seems to be an increasing number of vacant guest houses that people are looking to get rid,” he said. “There just doesn’t seem to be a market for people running guest houses any more.
“The last four, five or six years have probably taken their toll on most guest house owners and a lot now want to sell up and release what equity they can,” Cuddy added. “But it’s a Catch 22 situation, do you hold on in the hope some sort of trade comes back or cut your losses and sell up?”
Many pubs and nightspots — kept afloat during the recession by stag and hen night revellers — are now on offer and attracting just as little attention. The Frenchmans Cove, on South King Street, is valued at £275,000, and Central Drive’s George Hotel is on the market for £150,000. On Clifton Street, the Copacabana, and Progress Social Club, on nearby Exchange Street, bring the total value for all four properties to £619,950.
One publican blamed the lack of “vision” among banks and commercial lenders for the steady decline of the resort’s nightspots. “Like all businesses we have to change and improve to keep up,” she said, “and for that we need money, but no one seems to want to invest in this town any more. The recession may have ended for the rest of the country, but for Blackpool it’s still blowing a gale.”
Claire Smith is president of the Hotelier’s Association Stay Blackpool. “The for sale figures don’t surprise me at all because there’s always a high number of Blackpool hotels up for sale,” she said. “I would imagine that in the current economic climate there’s a bit more movement, and a lot of hotels are up for sale because people are retiring or wanting to move.”
