Whitbread Purchases Manchester City Centre Development Site for Future Premier Inn Hotel

Whitbread PLC, the UK’s largest hotel business and owner of Premier Inn, has purchased a consented hotel development site on the edge of Manchester’s Northern Quarter from Premcor.

The acquisition on Rochdale Road, which has planning permission for a 229-bedroom hotel set over ten storeys, is part of Whitbread’s strategy of reconfiguring its network of hotels in Manchester city centre.

With the purchase now complete, Whitbread is anticipated to appoint GMI Construction Group to build the hotel for its Premier Inn brand with construction work expected to commence in summer 2024.

Paul Smith, Property Acquisition Manager for Whitbread, said:

“Whitbread is a long-standing investor in Manchester with six popular Premier Inn hotels across the city centre and many more across the city region. In line with our perfect portfolio investment strategy, we are in the process of reconfiguring our network of hotels across central Manchester to ensure we have the right number of bedrooms in the right parts of the city centre for our guests.

“Our investment in the Rochdale Road development site brings another 229-bedrooms into our secured development pipeline in a part of the city centre we wish to expand our presence. The location ticks all the boxes for our guests and with Whitbread’s direct involvement in the scheme, we can guarantee the development will now proceed at pace.”

Whitbread intends to implement the planning consent for the hotel building which will feature a mix of Premier Inn’s standard bedrooms and enhanced Premier Plus rooms. An integrated restaurant, bar and check-in area will occupy the ground floor.

Whitbread’s most recent development activity in central Manchester has been to the south and west of the city centre.

In May 2021 the company opened a 157-bedroom Premier Inn hotel at Princess Street which paved the way for the redevelopment of its Manchester City Centre (Deansgate Locks) hotel a short distance away which served the same catchment.

Planning consent was successfully secured at this location to create a purpose-built student accommodation development for more than 1,000 students and a 13-storey office building. Demolition of the former hotel is currently underway.

Construction of the ten storey 229-bedroom Premier Inn hotel is due to commence in summer 2024