Quest Apartments launches in the UK

Quest Apartment Hotels, Australasia-based apartment hotel operator, has marked the start of its UK expansion plans, with the acquisition of its first site in Liverpool’s city centre with a £10m investment.

Encouraged by the government’s Northern Powerhouse strategy, the brand has chosen Liverpool as the home of its first property outside Australasia.

Established by entrepreneur Paul Constantinou nearly 30 years ago in Melbourne, the 160 strong Quest Apartment Hotels portfolio has made its name by offering a ‘home away from home’ to extended stay business travellers in locations across Australia, New Zealand and Fiji.

With 27 properties currently in the pipeline and 12 under construction in its home markets – the brand plans to apply its model to open ten properties across the country in the next five years.

Quest Liverpool City Centre will open in 2019 and is located on Church Street adjacent to the landmark Liverpool ONE complex. The building itself is a 1980s commercial office building with retail on the ground and first floors.

Quest will convert the existing vacant office space on levels two, three and four and construct additional levels five and six, creating 100 serviced apartments, reception, conference room, gym and back-of-house facilities.

Andrew Weisz, director of UK Development at Quest, said: “Hospitality brands have a huge role to play in opening up city centre locations for business again, but against a backdrop of economic uncertainty – it is clear that businesses want to spend travel budgets wisely.

“We’ve immersed ourselves in the UK market in recent months and can see the potential for the aggressive expansion of both our brand and the apartment hotel industry here.”