Bruce Cave (A Director of Active Hospitality) invited me to meet with him to introduce himself and offer further assurances that Easthampstead Park House and the grounds will be in safe hands.
I politely took him up on this offer as I was eager to quiz Bruce about the sale but in all honesty I assumed it would be unlikely that I would walk away feeling positive about EPH's distant future.
After questioning the businesses finances and Bruce's commercial history (that was filled with liquidated and dissolved businesses) Bruce explained that the DeVere, Village, Hotel du Vin and Malmaison brands had been sold to investors and prior to the sale of DeVere in particular a long list of inherited dormant companies needed to be tidied up.
The money for the purchase of EHP (and Active Hospitality's other hotels) has come from their own private money allowing EPH to be bought out-right on a long leasehold without being loaded with debt which could be seen as quite a personal commercial commitment.
Further more things have developed since the council made their initial asset disposal decision which was originally based on (arguably poor) advice from Christies. They have now received further legal advice which has enabled a sale that will both protect EPH from residential development and return it to public ownership if the business was to catastrophically fail.
It became clear that Bruce is genuinely excited to be in a position to take over this beloved community asset with the ambition of attracting not just corporate hotel customers but local residents & smaller businesses to the planned Gym, Spa, Bar, Restaurant and Serviced Offices along with fully refurbished, modernised bedrooms.
There are no plans to close the hotel at any time during the refurbishment and next year we will see Dubs At The Park return along with hopefully many other future public events.
So in conclusion I've actually walked away actually feeling positive about the sale and would like to think that the passion to protect this piece of history displayed by thousands residents was partly responsible for driving the extra legal provisions and negotiations that will protect it for future generations while allowing us to continue enjoying it right now.