A CLOSED York restaurant has sold for £900,000.

As The Press reported earlier this year, the former Luigi’s Italian restaurant in Upper Poppleton has been sold and will be turned in to a chapel.

Sam Ashton, Senior Business Agent at Christie & Co who handled the sale said: “A freehold property with a York postcode was always going to experience high interest.

"We’re now seeing just as much interest in sites which offer redevelopment potential as hospitality going concern businesses.

"Achieving £900,000 for the property is a fantastic result and I wish both parties all the best for the future.”

Luigi’s Ristorante And Pizzeria in Northfield Lane closed following the owner’s decision to retire after 17 years.

Over that time it had built up a good reputation and was popular with locals.

When The Press visited to review the restaurant in 2008 it was full of nick-knacks and mementoes from the “old country” with photos of the leaning tower of Pisa, huge maps of Italy, old advertisements for Fiat and big bottles of unopened wine.

Sitting on a circa 0.4-acre site just outside of York, the site and restaurant buildings have been bought by Michael Askew of Monitor Computer Systems, York, who plans to utilise the site for redevelopment into a chapel conversion.

The Pentecostal RCHG Hope Centre is based at Clements Hall, Nunthorpe Road, but is temporarily using Acomb Parish Church.

In a planning application to City of York Council they said they want to remove the restaurant bar and have seating for 84 people.

They also want to put kitchen facilities in Cedar House on Northfield Lane.

Mr Askew says the Acomb site attracts a turnout of 63 worshippers and in 2021, a maximum of 83.

The site has parking for 20 cars, which is sufficient, but if it needs more and there is the Park’N’Ride over the road.

The church has said that now it has bought the site, it will make a planning application to make it more suitable for church use.

Part of the Redeemed Christian Church of God, the church website said: “The atmosphere at RCHG York is charged with faith and exuberant joy, which is manifest in all we do.

"We believe we’re on the edge of the greatest of all time, and its our vision to help prepare for this next general outpouring.”