As the summer holiday season comes to an end for another year, national property and construction consultancy Wakemans is well underway with a new £4.5million hotel in Letchworth, the world’s first Garden City.
On behalf of Travelodge, Wakemans is acting as tenant’s agent on the 73-room hotel with Bar Café. Located in Avenue One, the Travelodge Letchworth Garden City is an integral part of the £16million Letchworth Gateway regeneration scheme and the first Travelodge hotel to open in the town.
The three-storey, stand-alone hotel with car parking is being built on a 4.5 acre plot on the edge of Letchworth’s industrial zone. A mixed use development site, it is also home to an Aldi supermarket, McDonalds drive-through and Costa Coffee outlet.
Wakemans Senior Associate Director Nigel Himpson said: “We’re delighted to be supporting Travelodge’s plans to expand its portfolio by bringing back into use a derelict site that has been vacant for many years.
“The new Travelodge Letchworth Garden City is purpose-designed to match the scale and character of other office and commercial buildings, while the area will be enhanced by additional, complementary landscaping.”
An existing warehouse building and associated offices have been demolished to make way for the Letchworth Gateway development. In keeping with the local architecture, all buildings have been designed with flat-pitched roofs and feature brickwork and cladding that blends in with the surroundings.
The new Travelodge incorporates 36 family rooms, 33 double rooms and four accessible rooms and is located about one kilometre from the city centre, enjoying good transport links to the A1 (M).
Travelodge Property Director, Tony O’Brien said: “We are delighted to start building work on our first hotel in Letchworth which is scheduled to open in 2019. There is a desperate need for good quality and low cost accommodation within the area and our new hotel will certainly attract more business and leisure travellers to the area.”
Recently, Welwyn Garden City Travelodge opened in Hertfordshire – the ninth hotel in the county – and the hotel group announced further expansion with plans to nearly double its portfolio across the region. Locations include: Hertford/Ware, Hitchin/Letchworth, Hoddesdon/Broxbourne, Potters Bar, Radlett, Rickmansworth, Stevenage and Watford. This expansion represents an investment of around £50 million and will create approximately 160 new jobs.
