Investor Frank Truman with Legacy Hotels to Develop New Hotel in Reading, UK

Main Photo: The proposed plans for No. 1 Reading

Date: December 2018

Location: No. 1 Reading, Station Road, Berkshire, UK

Name: TBA – to open 2020/21

No. of Keys: 135

Seller: The site is a former derelict Norwich Union building.

Buyer: Frank Turner in partnership with Breithorn Developments and Legacy Hotels & Resorts. Frank has a current partnership with Legacy, from it’s acquisition of the 88 room Hampton by Hilton in Kettering in September 2017 and the 99 room Castle Green Hotel in Kendal in September 2018.

The Reading project has had many planning applications since 2002 for offices and residential, including a Radisson hotel in 2008.

The current plan is for a major mixed-use development for offices, retail and a hotel within a striking 22-floor tower close to Reading station.

No. 1 Reading, a £30 million scheme has been put forward by Station Road Development Co Ltd for the long-neglected 29 – 35 Station Road site, for a 135-room hotel with bar and restaurant, a retail unit and 1,685 sq m of offices.

Broadway Malyan is the architect and Turley the planner for No. 1 Reading.

Michael Tomkins of Station Road Development Co said “We are hugely excited about this significant opportunity and are committed to investing in Reading for the long term. Once built, it is our intention to retain and manage the building ourselves and remain a long-term investor in Reading.”

The scheme’s retail unit (which could be a cafe/coffee shop) and main entrance will be on the ground floor with the hotel bar and reception on the first floor and its restaurant on the second. Floors three to 16 will be hotel rooms and associated services with five floors of offices at the top.

The developer envisages an 18-month build, and if approval is gained by March, the building would open in late 2020 or early 2021.

THPT Comment: Legacy has come a long-way from it’s inception by Andy Townsend, CEO as a small hotel management company in 2005, to over 20 hotels with 3,000 under major brands such as Hilton, Accor, IHG and Best Western.

First Seen: Thames Tap

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