Tax allowances provide funding for three city centre hotel developments

Three landmark sites which had fallen into disrepair in Glasgow, Newcastle and Birmingham are set to become hotels after tax breaks of more than £14m were used to kick start the projects.

Worth a combined £35.8m value, the three separate deals include an old office block in Glasgow which is now set to be converted into an 88-bedroom Hampton by Hilton hotel under the ownership of asset management company Curo. Neil Gullan of Curo said: "This deal reflects the sector confidence in Glasgow as a destination for 2014 and beyond."

In Birmingham, a city-centre office has been given £16.5m to fund its conversion into a 100-room apart-hotel, most of which has already been pre-let to an unnamed US hospitality group.

Meanwhile, in Newcastle Napier Capital Management's acquisition of Proctor House on The Side involved £8.3m of funding to refurbish the building and create a 104-bedroom hotel to be managed and run by Tune Hotels, which is due to open next summer.

All three funding deals used Business Premises Renovation Allowances (BPRA) arranged by the tax team at McClure Naismith. David Thomson, head of real estate at McClure Naismith said: "We are delighted to have advised our clients on how to use BPRA to help restore important buildings whilst ensuring they benefit from significant cost savings."

What is BPRA? Business Premises Renovation Allowances apply to unoccupied buildings in disadvantaged areas and to qualify, the building must lie within an assisted area, have been unoccupied for at least one year, and have been formerly used as an office or for the purposes of a trade or vocation. In addition, there is the facility to defer the capital cost for seven years from when the refurbishment is completed. The legislation applies throughout the UK and runs until 2017.