The prominent waterfront site of a stalled £50 million hotel development in the Plymouth Hoe area is up for sale again, after the ending of an agreement between the council and the original developer.
The elevated site of the former Quality Inn hotel, which extends to nearly a hectare and benefits from panoramic sea views, is now being marketed by global real estate advisor Colliers International on behalf of Plymouth City Council.
Marc Finney, head of Hotels & Resorts Consulting, at Colliers International said: “This is an exciting opportunity to acquire the freehold for a prime, vacant development site in an excellent waterfront location zoned for hotel development, which is adjacent to Plymouth Hoe with exceptional sea views in multiple directions across Plymouth Sound.”
The Quality Inn was demolished some five years ago and the site then cleared, and it was intended to create a five star hotel scheme called Hotel 1620 to accommodate visitors in 2020 to Plymouth’s Mayflower 400 celebrations, marking the 400th anniversary of the voyage of the Pilgrims to the United States.
However, the planned 11-storey, 80 bedroom hotel and 15 storey apartment block never materialised, and now Colliers International is seeking a new development partner on behalf of Plymouth City Council.
Marc Finney said that the council’s objective for the site was to secure the delivery of a high quality hotel-led mixed use development, and that this would be a major factor in determining selection of developer and price.
He added that while proposals could include an element of residential use this was not a requirement, although where resident use was included in proposals, the council would consider how these would contribute to the overall quality and delivery of the project.
“Plymouth’s hotel market is extremely undersupplied when compared to similar destinations, and the city will continue to benefit from the growing importance of staycations, which has been highlighted during the current COVID-19 crisis,” he said
“In the inaugural Colliers International COVID-19 Recovery Hotels Index, which analysed which cities would see the strongest market bounce back, we predicted that Plymouth would be the top performer in the UK and this has indeed been the case with the city recording highest levels of hotel occupancy in the UK in both August and September.
“Not surprisingly, we have already received considerable interest from both UK and overseas developers, among them developers which had previously bid for this site and know it well.”
A spokesperson for Plymouth City Council said: “The agreement between Henley Real Estate Developments Ltd and Plymouth City Council has come to an end. The Council has recently appointed Colliers International to market the site and to assist the Council in its search for a developer for the site. The site is allocated in the Council’s Joint Local Plan for hotel led mixed use regeneration.”
