Boutique Hotel Approved for Former Newspaper Offices
Date: July 2018
Location: City Centre, Coventry, UK
Name: TBA – opening 2020
No. of Keys: 88
Seller: Trinity Mirror, the site is the Coventry Telegraph building, which they moved from, to current offices in Canal Basin in 2012.
Buyer: Complex Development Projects (CDP) plans to start construction work later this year restoring the city centre building.
Complex Development Projects is a private development company choosing to work in partnership with government, community groups and charities to deliver urban renewal projects.
Projects include the Electric Wharf, Coventry, live-Work lofts and offices in a canal side environment at Electric Wharf in Coventry and they have completed retail and office developments in partnership with the Local Authority in Knowsley, Merseyside.
The hotel will be managed by Bespoke Hotels.
CDP jointly purchased a seven acre site from BG plc with Gold Medal Travel Group, the UK’s 2nd largest independent travel company. The existing building was converted to provide a 600 seat call centre and an additional plot of land is reserved for a separate headquarters office.
About 130 jobs will also be created when the hotel is open which is planned to be ahead of Coventry being UK City of Culture in 2021.
Ian Harrabin, of CDP, said: “The planning approval is a major step forward for the hotel proposals. We are in advanced discussions with the council as freeholder and are hoping to have their permission to proceed as we need to push on so we can complete in time for 2021.
“The building is located in a prime spot in the city centre and this is a great opportunity to save an iconic piece of 1950s architecture because we will be preserving many of its original
features and artefacts.”
The hotel will have around 100 bedrooms, a ground floor restaurant and bar, meeting rooms, penthouse suites and a rooftop bar.
The plans will see original features of the building retained, including the panelled boardroom and the Lord Iliffe Suite – the restored top floor apartment of the former owner of the newspaper.
Harrabin added: “We are confident this innovative hotel will boost the city’s economy and attract visitors not only during the year-long City of Culture celebrations but long-term because the kind of hotel we have designed will attract visitors who want to stay in a boutique hotel during a leisure break.
“This is another part of the jigsaw in the regeneration of Corporation Street. Once we secure Council approval, work will start soon on removing the internal elements of the building before the major work starts next year.”
THPT Comment: Coventry has fallen way behind it’s near neighbour Birmingham in the hotel stakes…not since DeVere opened a brand new hotel in 1972, has the city had a hotel it could be truly proud of, despite the scattering of Hilton, Ramada, Village, Days etc it has…Probably the nicest is Coombe Abbey on the outskirts of the city.
First Seen: The Business Desk