German hotel group Motel One to make UK debut in Edinburgh
Motel One is opening its first UK hotel in Edinburgh next summer, as part of a mixed-use development in the Castlehill area of the city.
The German hotel group has agreed terms with multi-sector property developers, Chris Stewart Group, for the £25m 208-bedroom hotel. It will be located in the former buildings of Edinburgh City Council's economic development department.
The hotel will form the cornerstone of a £45m mixed-use development and include 30,000 sq ft of residential space with self catering apartments, six office premises comprising 10,000sq ft each, and two new restaurants.
Work will start this month on the rest of the 140,000 sq ft site, which stretches from Market Street towards Advocates Close off the Royal Mile.
The development is expected to take three years to complete and will be the fourth major hotel development carried out by Chris Stewart Group in recent years.
CEO Chris Stewart said that the agreement with Motel One was crucial in securing the future of the site: "Bringing Motel One in to anchor the whole development kick starts the regeneration of a key part of the Old Town which will take place over the next three years. I am delighted that we can now start to physically move the project forward.
"Motel One was introduced to me by Scottish Development International at the annual International Investment Hotel Forum in Berlin and it was clear that it was actively looking at the UK.
"Edinburgh was high on its target list and although this site has been challenging for us due to its sensitive nature and historic context, we were sure it could provide Motel One with everything they were looking for. I hope that Market Street is the first of many projects which we do with Motel One."
Motel One was founded in 2000 and has 32 hotels in Germany and two in development in Austria. It has successfully established itself in Germany as a low budget designer hotel chain.
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By Gemma Rowbotham
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