A £6.5 million Birmingham leisure complex which includes a driving range and a golfing academy run by top women’s golfer Alison Nicholas is caught up in a crisis after its owners went bust.

Administrators KPMG have been appointed to the Host Corporation Ltd, which operates the high-profile Hostcentre golf course and driving range at Queslett Park, Booth Lane, Great Barr.

The financial collapse of the Host Corporation puts the future development of up to 40 acres of land in the area in jeopardy,10 years after the mixed-use leisure scheme was launched.

Queslett Park boasts one of the largest two-tiered floodlit all-weather driving ranges in Europe, a nine-hole golf course and the Alison Nicholas Golf Academy, which caters for individual and corporate groups.

But a decline in bookings and lack of credit availability to develop the site has forced the owners, the Host Corporation, into administration.

Andy McGill, joint administrator from KPMG Restructuring, said: “The range and nine hole par three golf course continue to operate as normal for the foreseeable future, and remain very much open for business.

“The Host Corporation owns not only the land upon which the course and range are located, but also surrounding land totalling approximately 40 acres.

“Various schemes had been proposed by the management team over the years to invest in the area and develop the whole site, but the decline in the credit markets over the last couple of years has made progressing these plans very difficult.

“We have already received interest from investors keen to understand more about the potential for the site and we will be developing discussions with all interested parties over the coming weeks.”

KPMG said the American Golf shop which is also located on the site is a separate, unconnected company unaffected by the administration. The Alison Nicholas Golf Academy is still open for business.

The Host Corporation Ltd employs a small number of part-time employees to run the driving range. No redundancies have been made at present.

The Great Barr project run as the Host Centre was the brainchild of businessman Richard Nicol, who said in 2000 it would provide a “unique leisure academy” and “add another dimension to the regeneration of Birmingham.”

Alison Nicholas was one of Europe’s most successful women golfers from 1980 until her retirement in 2004, claiming 18 professional titles. She was US Open Champion in 1997.

She was awarded the MBE in 1998 for services to women’s golf and is a former Midlands Sports Personality of the Year.

Neither Mr Nicol nor Alison Nicholas could be contacted for comment.