L’oscar in Holborn, London to Open End May 2018

Date: March 2018 (Updated August 2018)

Location: Former Baptist Church, Southampton Row, London, UK…..a few steps from Holborn tube (metro) station

Name: L’oscar Hotel – Five star

No.of Keys: 40 (Planning was originally secured for 54 rooms)

Seller: Formerly the building was the HQ of The Baptist Union. It’s an astonishing building. And even more astonishing is that until the L’oscar team got their hands on it, it was derelict, on Historic England’s Risk Register since the 1990s.

Built in the first few years of the 20th century, the building was once a Baptist church. Original religious flourishes – including terracotta biblical narrative panels by Doulton above huge marble fireplaces – have been blended with Garcia’s bohemian opulence.

Buyer: Triangle Hotels and Resorts, which is a division of investment and asset management group Triangle.

Since acquiring the former Baptist Union building in 2012, Triangle has gone on to buy the 3.3 acre Holborn Links Estate, on behalf of Perez International, for £212.5m. The estate includes the Travelodge hotel on High Holborn.

The French interior designer Jacques Garcia has been appointed to carry out the refurb design….He once said, ‘I am, before everything, a creator of atmosphere.’ His projects are just as understated!

Each hotel he designs oozes atmosphere. Opulent, rich, sexy atmosphere. Hôtel Costes in Paris with its heady red velvet scene. The NoMad in New York with its low-lit vintage rugs and dark wood panelling. La Mamounia in Marrakech and its glorious Art Deco-meets-imperial-Morocco revamp.

The bedrooms at L’Oscar are lavishly decorated in deep purples, rich reds and burnished golds with wonderfully tactile silks, velvets and damask.

The halls are papered in embossed purple leather. Not a single detail is overlooked, from the meticulously hand-stencilled panels to the Champagne coupes that Garcia specifically requested with hollow stems (impossible to source but they made it happen). And Roja Dove has created the L’Oscar’s own bespoke, sandalwood-heavy scent that will perfume all the in-room potions.

Price: Around £40m. Although the total cost of the hotel has not been disclosed, the £21m loan, they secured in May 2017, was confirmed by OakNorth as being equivalent to 50% of the development’s gross development value (the estimated amount the property will be worth upon completion). There was a further £3m loan secured from RM Funds. OakNorth was introduced to the deal by Stonehouse Finance.

Price per Key: Around £1m

THPT Comment: Due to open in 2017, the expected date is now May 2018…In October 2015, Michael Voight was appointed as general manager (poached from the five-star, 82-bedroom Arch London)…Will he still be there for the opening?

Triangle describe themselves as a leading private office with an entrepreneurial approach to finding bespoke investment opportunities and long standing partnerships that span generations.

As stewards of our own and our partners’ private capital, we understand the important role that real estate plays in both capital preservation and wealth creation.

They appear to have several hotel interests, but we are not sure which ones

First Seen: The Caterer