Meininger Set for Glasgow, Scotland

Date: March 2018

Location: West George Street, Glasgow, Scotland, UK

Name: The Meininger Hotel – opening 2020

No. of Keys: 160 rooms – 590 beds

Seller: The property was in the L&G portfolio and is part of the Queen Street station redevelopment. There was a six-storey Dale House, which was the former Royal Bank of Scotland cash handling centre, built in the early 1980s and has been lying vacant for the last 18 years, on the site of the new hotel.

Buyer/Developer: Investor LGIM Real Assets will develop the hostel-hotel, with Meininger signing a 25 year lease on the property, which will also feature a street level retail unit.

Meininger currently operates 20 hotels across Europe including one in London (the old Baden-Powell Scout HQ!).

The room types will range from classic double rooms through private multi-bed rooms to beds in a dorm room.

The public areas such as reception, lobby, lounge, breakfast room and bar as well as a guest kitchen and game zone, which are all typical features of a Meininger, will be located on the first floor of the building. At basement, ground and mezzanine levels the scheme will also create around 1400 sqm of new retail space.

The building was designed by the architectural practice NORR.

Derek Reid, Project Director for Architects NORR Consultants, stated “We are immensely proud to have assisted Legal + General and Meininger Hotels in achieving securing planning permission, for this site.

The hotel in Glasgow will be the second hotel for the Meininger Group in the UK, with London opened in 2006.

Hannes Spanring, CEO of Meininger, is pleased about the new project: “Great Britain is a very important market for us and Glasgow as Scotland’s largest city is the perfect location for another hotel in the UK.

This year another 6 hotels are going to open in Europe. Including Glasgow, a total of 15 projects are under development and further projects are being searched for. “The focus is still on Europe, but we are also looking for opportunities in North America and South Asia,” says Hannes Spanring.

Craig Westmacott, Senior Fund Manager, LGIM Real Assets, said: “We are pleased to be working with Meininger Hotels as they seek to expand their successful brand into the UK.

LGIM acquired the Hampton by Hilton at Stansted Airport in 2017 from Urban & Civic for around £48m.

THPT Comment: Meininger are a true hybrid business operation properties that vary between traditional hotel and new-wave hostel and are definitely a company to watch with it’s planned expansion in Europe and further afield. Meininger are part of Cox & Kings, the worlds oldest travel agents, who also own Holidaybreak Plc (Superbreak),

LGIM have chosen a good partner here on this Glasgow project.

First Seen: Meininger website