THE new owners of a pub restaurant complex plan to lease it off to a company.

Cathedrals, featuring a bistro/caf, restaurant, bar and in-house micro-brewery in the refurbished former Victorian police station in Durham, has been bought by local property consortium Partnorth Limited.

The premises closed recently, only ten months after opening following a £3.5m investment by former sausage company owner Richard Lazenby.

As debts approached £4m, administrators Tenon Recovery were called in to help run it from December 14.

Administrator Ian Kings, a director of Tenon Recovery, said the sale went through "for an undisclosed sum".

Mr Kings said: "We have traded the business for the last six months and I'm delighted that we have successfully achieved a sale, which should secure the long-term future of the complex."

Ken Stewart, an agent acting for Partnorth, said talks were taking place with major companies to run the entire premises, rather than lease it off piecemeal.

"We are in negotiations with various companies with the intention to lease it off, but we haven't signed any deals yet.

"We are talking with major companies who are interested in taking it on, but the property itself will remain closed until a new tenant is found," he said.

Mr Lazenby ploughed in much of the money he made from the sale of his Teesside sausage company to refurbish the old police premises, in Court Lane, which had been closed for years.

But he was beset by delays getting it off the ground, including a lengthy saga overcoming licence objections.

Advertisements have appeared in the regional business Press for prospective tenants to operate the complex.