Whitbread has secured planning consent to convert a vacant office building in Leeds into a Premier Inn hotel.
The company plans to transform Verity House, which is located in the South Bank area of Leeds city centre, into a 131-room hotel with construction work expected to commence early next year.
On opening, Verity House will complement three trading Premier Inns in Leeds city centre with a new 143-bedroom Premier Inn at Leeds Harewood Quarter also under contract as part of a council-led redevelopment.
Jill Anderson, acquisitions manager for Whitbread, said: “Gaining approval of our plans for Verity House is a major achievement in our efforts to deliver more high quality, affordable bedrooms for our guests in Leeds city centre. We’re seeing huge demand in the city and this wonderfully accessible location is sure to be incredibly popular for our business and leisure guests.
“Whitbread has a long and successful track record of converting office buildings into high quality, successful Premier Inn hotels. By purchasing Verity House freehold last autumn, we demonstrated that Whitbread is unafraid to take on planning and development risk to convert former offices into hotels in locations that match our network plan requirements and meet the expectations of our guests. We’re actively looking for similar opportunities across the north of England as we continue to grow our hotel estate in the region.”
