The Woodside Hotel in Kenilworth has been sold to a major housing developer that is already set to build 620 homes on the adjacent land.

Vistry Group has completed the purchase of the Glasshouse Lane hotel for an undisclosed fee from Archel Homes, less than a year after Archel bought the building for £5million.

Archel took over the site after the previous owners, The Sundial Group, went into administration.

Company director Jamie Pearson told Nub News that Archel had originally intended to develop the hotel.

"The intention was always to go and get a good planning consent on it and develop the site out," he told Nub News.

"But they [Vistry] came along with an offer that I accepted and it is as simple as that.

"They own the rest of the site around it so it was always a fairly likely fit."

Mr Pearson also said that he had received interest from at least a dozen different developers, but said that Vistry made the most viable offer.

"It makes complete sense for them to buy it because then they are in complete control of what is already going to be a fantastic wider masterplan," he said.

"So it is very sensibles and I believe that they are the right people to own the site and deliver out the housing that the town needs."

Vistry was given outline planning permission to build 620 houses and a new primary school on Glasshouse Lane around the hotel last August.

Vistry Group already has planning permission to build 620 homes around the Woodside Hotel (Image via planning application)

A detailed application for the development has been submitted to Warwick District Council.

But with permission to build showhomes on the site already granted, work began on the estate earlier this year.

The development will also include a £60million investment from the district council through its new housing company Milverton Homes.

A Vistry Group spokesperson said to Nub News: "Vistry Group has recently completed the purchase of the Woodside Hotel on Glasshouse Lane, Kenilworth.

"We are currently developing the land adjacent to the hotel, and it is one of the first developments in the country which has involved both Vistry Partnerships and Vistry Housebuilding.

"In total we will be delivering 620 much-needed new homes for the area. Vistry Partnerships is building 475 of the homes split between Linden and Milverton Homes and Vistry Housebuilding will be building 145 Bovis Homes on the site."

An application to demolish the Woodside Hotel was submitted to WDC in May by Crewe Lane Kenilworth JV LLP - a company formed of Vistry Linden Limited and Milverton Homes.

Whilst the application was rejected by the council on environmental grounds, it is expected that a fresh application will be submitted soon.

Today's announcement comes just weeks after Kenilworth Town Council councillors said that the hotel needed to be protected from being turned into housing.

(Header image via Maypm via wikimedia commons)