Birmingham’s hotel renaissance is racing ahead after the third project by the same developer was given the go-ahead by planners.
Sanguine Hospitality, which already has planning for a hotel, spa at restaurant at The Cube and to transform Cumberland House on Broad Street, has had plans or a proposed 224 bed hotel and 500 seat conferencing centre at No 1 Snow Hill Plaza – also known as the Kennedy Tower – approved by the city council.
The hotel will be a Holiday Inn Express.
The building is currently owned by Manchester-based Bruntwood, which also owns the McLaren building at the top of Eastside, and the application was submitted by Alliance Planning on behalf of Bruntwood and Denizen Contracts. Planning Alliance also achieved approval for the Cumberland House scheme.
Director Keith Fenwick said: “I am delighted to have been able to deliver a second major hotel consent for Birmingham within the last 12 months.
“It was particularly rewarding to hear the council’s planning committee chairman recognise the work which had gone in to re-vitalising such an important gateway building.
“Seeing as the conversion of Cumberland House is now underway, this shows the positive potential for delivering major opportunities within Birmingham even in this difficult investment market.”
Work has already started on Sanguine’s other city projects which include a £30 million investment to transform the 1960s tower block Cumberland House on Broad Street into a Hampton by Hilton hotel.
The project, which will include a complete internal refit and a new facia, is set to be completed by summer next year.
Fit out work has also started on the developer’s highest profile scheme in the city, an Indigo boutique hotel on the 23rd and 24th floors of The Cube with a health club on the ground floors and a Marco Pierre White Steakhouse Bar and Grill on the 25th floor.
Elsewhere in the city, Hilton Doubletree has agreed to open a Crouch Butler-designed 200-bedroom hotel at Edgbaston Mill overlooking the world-famous cricket ground following a deal with Wylam Investments (Edgbaston Holdings) which has a long lease on the site from Calthorpe Estates.
In the Jewellery Quarter Bryant Priest Newman has designed a new Bloc Hotel for Boxbuild, a 73-bedroom ‘budget boutique’ offering on Caroline Street off St Paul’s Square. Described as ‘luxury on a budget’, the £60 a night Japanese pod-style rooms offer bed, wall-fitted LED TV, wi-fi and wet room.
