CATCH SOME ZZZS IN GLASGOW
Z Hotels has acquired a building in Glasgow, Scotland, from the trustees for the firm of the Hampton Court Hotel for a rumoured £1 million – the property was on the market for offers of more than £700,000. The London-based budget hotel group, founded by former Thistle Hotels’ chief operating officer, Bev King, plans to develop a 100- to 120-room hotel in the five-storey building, which, until four years ago, was home to the Old Printworks public house. The new hotel, the first Z Hotel in Scotland, is expected to open in 2014.
REZIDOR TO PARK IN TURKEY FOR THE FIRST TIME
Rezidor Hotel Group’s Park Inn brand is to make its debut in Turkey. An existing office building in Istanbul is to be converted into the Park Inn Istanbul Ataturk Airport, which is expected to open in the first quarter of 2014. The 144-room hotel, five kilometres from Ataturk International Airport, will be Rezidor’s fifth hotel in the city overall.
AC BY MARRIOTT ROCKS INTO NICE AND BARCELONA
Marriott’s joint venture with AC Hotels has expanded its AC Hotels by Marriott portfolio across Europe to 82 properties by opening two new hotels this week. The AC Hotel Nice has just emerged from an extensive renovation to open with 143 rooms in the resort of Nice, southeast France. Overlooking the Mediterranean Sea, the hotel is France’s second AC Hotel by Marriott. The AC Hotel Sant Cugat in Barcelona has become the Catalonian capital’s seventh AC Hotel by Marriott.
The 152-room hotel is in the Sant Joan business area in the suburb of Sant Cugat del Valles. “Nice and Sant Cugat del Valles are popular destinations for both business and leisure travellers and fit perfectly with the brand’s associated modern comfort and urban style,” said Amy McPherson, Marriott’s president and managing director for Europe.
DANISH DEAL IN LONDON
The freehold interest in the Travelodge London Farringdon has been purchased by CBRE Global Investors, on behalf of one of its clients, from a private Danish investor for a price reported to be above £20 million, which represents a yield of 5.5%, rising to 6.1% in 2014. The 219-room hotel, near to King’s Cross station, is currently let to Travelodge, with 26 years remaining on the lease and an option to extend.
Other Travelodge news this week includes the opening of the group’s fifth hotel for London’s Heathrow area: the 128-room Travelodge London Hounslow, which cost £9.4 million to develop.
OOH LA LYON
After being treated to a ten-month makeover, the 80-room Carlton Lyon hotel in the French city of Lyon, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, has reopened as Accor’s flagship MGallery in France. The hotel’s Haussmann building was constructed in 1894, and it has been operated as a hotel since 1925.