Flood-hit Crowne Plaza reopens after £1m refurbishment

The 135-bedroom Crowne Plaza Leeds hotel has reopened today after losing £1.2m in revenue as a result of being closed by the Boxing Day floods.

Sir Gary Verity, chief executive of Welcome to Yorkshire, relaunched the hotel which has undergone a £1m refurbishment as a result of damage caused by flood water that destroyed its car parks, storage facilities and vital infrastructure.

As well as undergoing a £25,000 deep-clean, the hotel has also replaced 43 internal doors,150 square metres of carpet, and its entire IT, telephone, electrical and heating systems. The cellar and store rooms have also had to be refurbished.

The car park will reopen later this month, while the leisure centre will partly reopen while finishing touches are made to a complete refurbishment of the swimming pool area.

Marco Frik, general manager of the Crowne Plaza Leeds, described the Boxing Day floods as "a terrible day" for the hotel. "The floods devastated our hotel's infrastructure and it's been a difficult and costly journey to get to this point.

"However, we have spent more than £1m getting the hotel back to full working order, and we've taken the opportunity to upgrade certain areas of the hotel such as the leisure centre, so the reopening is certainly worth the wait."

During the hotel's nine week closure, the 80-strong workforce has been redeployed to other InterContinental Hotels Group properties across the country, with a core group held on site to greet any pre-booked guests who were unaware of the closure.

Sir Gary encouraged new visitors to show their support in helping to get flood affected businesses back on their feet. "Yorkshire is open for business and we are ready to give all of our visitors a warm Yorkshire welcome."

Photo: Marco Frik and Sir Gary Verity join hotel staff in officially reopening the Crowne Plaza Leeds

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