Criterion eyes 187-bedroom Manchester Piccadilly hotel 

The London real estate firm run by billionaire Asif Aziz wants to convert the upper floors of the Royal Buildings into a Zedwell hotel, the company’s first foray into the city. 

Criterion Capital, which describes itself as the largest landowner in London’s Piccadilly Circus and Leicester Square corridor, has lodged an application with the city council to deliver a 187-bedroom venue overlooking the soon-to-be-transformed Piccadilly Gardens in the heart of Manchester. 

Designed by Buttress Architects, the project would see the upper four floors of the Royal Buildings converted “through a reconfiguration of the internal floor layout and partial infilling of lightwells”, according to a planning statement by Savills. 

Most of the site is vacant, except two floors occupied by a language school that is due to relocate in June 2024. 

The ground floor, occupied by Costa and Burger King, would be unaffected by the proposals. 

To learn more about the project, search for reference 137450/FO/2023 on Manchester City Council’s planning portal. 

The conversion of the building, which occupies a prime site on the corner of Market Street and Mosely Street, will see the site brought back into use as a hotel for the first time since the original Royal Hotel was demolished to make way for the existing building in 1909. 

The Royal Hotel was famous for having been the site of the formation of the Football League in 1888. 

Criterion’s hotel portfolio comprises four venues with a total of 1,100 rooms, with a further three hotels currently under construction, which would see the number of rooms more than double. 

The developer acquired the Royal Buildings recently, according to planning documents. The asset last traded in 2010 when Legal & General acquired it for just shy of £10m.