Grand part of £858m deal
A historic Birmingham hotel, due to reopen next year after a long £25m revamp, has been bought by a French group as part of an £858 million property deal.
The 185-room Grand Hotel is among 14 four and five-star hotels in major UK cities bought by Foncière des Régions from Starwood Capital.
The Grade II* listed Grand building on Colmore Row has been redeveloped as shops, offices and a hotel by owner Hortons Estates. Starwood's Principal Hotel Company had been lined up to run the hotel, but Foncière des Régions has struck a deal with InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG) to run 13 of the hotels, including The Grand, on long term managed leases as a luxury chain. IHG is also launching some of the hotels under its Kimpton boutique brand for the first time in the UK.
IHG expects the hotels to generate £200m in a year in revenue by 2023.
The Grand Hotel is scheduled to open in early 2019. It was originally developed by the Horton Family between 1879 and 1895 and contained shops, offices and the Grand Hotel, which the family ran until 1969. The hotel was subsequently managed by a number of operators until it closed in 2002.
Since 2009 Hortons’ Estate has invested £25 million in the award-winning restoration of the building resulting in the creation of 10 new shops and 11,000 sq ft of offices fronting Colmore Row, together with significant re-modelling of the interior of the former hotel.
