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Whitbread has acquired the freehold of a 42,000 sq ft office building, Verity House, in the South Bank area of Leeds City Centre, which it intends to redevelop into a 120-bedroom Premier Inn hotel.
The detached property, which was built in 2000, is strategically positioned for reuse as a hotel given its city centre location and proximity to Leeds Railway Station, which is less than a three-minute walk away.
Subject to planning permission, Whitbread will build an extension to the L-shaped building and retrofit it into a Premier Inn-branded hotel.
Jill Anderson, acquisitions manager at Whitbread, said: “Whitbread has a long and successful track record of converting office buildings into popular budget hotels. It is a proven route to expanding our presence in popular locations like Leeds City Centre where development opportunities are limited and where we have a requirement to grow.
“Converting offices into hotels also provides obvious benefits to the environment by extending the life of existing buildings and reducing the embodied carbon of development. The location has huge potential and I’m looking forward to working with the City Council’s planning team on repurposing the building.”
The acquisition of Verity House grows Whitbread’s secured development pipeline in Leeds City Centre to two locations and more than 250 pipeline bedrooms. It currently offers its customers a choice of eight trading locations across the city, including Leeds / Bradford Airport.
