After being left empty for nearly two years a mansion hotel became a "sorry state" with water damage on the inside and giant weeds crawling up the walls. The once grand Caer Rhun Hall in Conwy closed in January 2020 - months after former owner Northern Powerhouse Developments collapsed into administration.
But thanks to a former chef - who told his new employers about the Welsh mansion - the site was finally sold in 2021. The buyer was Tokyo Industries - a brand that owned city bars, clubs and sites in the UK and America.
They were looking for something different to meet the needs of clients who wanted to escape busy city life. In Caer Rhun they saw the potential of a property that could be brought back to its former glory.
More than £1m later, with the leaks sealed, the overgrown gardens tamed and transformed, they are on the home stretch to reopen the grand building, which was built for Major-General Gough in 1895.
They aim to be open by the start of July - operating as a wedding and events venue and a hotel. There are further plans for expansion with more rooms and a spa.
This all dates back to a chat three years ago with one of the chefs at Tokyo Industries, which was started by Aaron Mellor in 1997 and now operates 47 bars, clubs, venues in the UK and seven International sites in Dubai, Palm Springs, LA, Croatia and Ibiza.
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Paul Gourlay, who is overseeing the transformation at Caer Rhun for Toyko, said: "A chef that was working in one of our other sites used to be the chef here and he told me the story so we started to enquire and realised it was available.
"It was during lockdown and we came down to have a look at it - we had to sneak up from the back fields and we passed the church (St. Mary's) and that set our minds racing about what a great location it was, looking down into the valley over the old Roman ruins. When we saw the building, it was such an impressive site and we saw a lot of potential.
"We then spent 18 months working through the legals. It took time and communication but we got there in the end.
"The deal was done in May 2021 and that's when we started investing in the property, we had to recover it as it had gotten into quite a bad state over the lockdown after last operating in late 2019 so it was just left for nearly two years with no heating or upkeep.
"We had to spent considerable amounts of money refitting the roof, treating the outside of the building, bringing the grounds back to their former glory. When we came the weeds were growing several feet up the walls.
"The roof damage had caused leaks so that meant new carpet and new plasterboard, and painting and decorating throughout. It was in a very sorry state.
"It has taken us 18 months of continuous investment to get it to where we are now, at the final stage of being ready to open. We have the last few issues and a new heating system to put in place with a biomass system arriving with a gas back up.
"We have spent a lot of time bringing the historical gardens back to where they should be, from what I've been told by the gardeners advising us they are now at a state at or better than they were when last operating. A lot of money has been invested into the grounds, we have six people working on them alone now.
"In total we will have invested close to £1m on the property and gardens by the time we open - to bring it back to how it was and improve it to our standards of operation."
There will be 23 rooms in the main house with another six in the villa, two in a lodge and three in an annex.
He said there is planning in place for another 40 rooms in the annex at the side of the mansion where there is now rundown former accommodation from the days when the site was also an accountancy school.
Paul added: "Once we get open and operating at the main house and villa it is our intention to keep investing into the property with another 40 rooms and also there are plans for a spa at the old squash court."
Talking about the business and opportunity in North Wales, Paul said: "We have hotels elsewhere - we have just opened Impossible hotel in York, a very cool, modern hotel which we redeveloped from scratch. We have bars, restaurants and nightclubs, that been our core focus over the initial years. As we develop as a company we are branching out more and more into hotels.
"This is our next one and we have more in the pipeline. We also have hotels in LA.
"This particular site is a perfect getaway retreat - we are Manchester based and we have a lot of high end clientele that go to our restaurants, bars and events in Manchester. It is ideal for us to migrate some of them here as a country retreat.
"After being here myself for the last 12 months, basically living here, I had never been to this area and I am absolutely blown away by the beauty and what it has to offer. I live in Leeds and didn't really venture this side of the UK, the more time I spend here the more I'm blown away with what the area has to offer, not just the natural beauty but the modern eco-friendly and wild adventures.
"I've been getting myself quite immersed in all of it over the last few months. The local businesses have all also been super supportive and we feel very much at home."
They will have a core team of 25 to 30 people and then that will be supported by extra staff during events. He said they had received a large number of applications, with the prominence of the site helping.
Paul said: "The main focus will be weddings and events and private hire. The rooms will be open to book as a hotel but the main focus will be weddings and events. The list of what we want to do is endless."
These range from food and drink festivals to murder mysteries to Halloween and Christmas events. There are lots of enquiries already coming in.
Paul said: "We are not that far away - there is a lot more planting - bringing in some cool furniture, giving a modern edge to an old building.
"We want to get it just right for when we open."
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2023-05-14 04:00:00Z
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