Fresh plans worked up for Piccadilly hotel site
Yorkshire-based developers North Star and Countrylarge have acquired a prominent plot near Manchester’s main train station from Japanese hotel group Toyoko.
The joint venture is now working up fresh proposals for the site, located off Piccadilly and Gore Street, next to the Waldorf pub.
“It’s an unrivalled location in an unrivalled city,” said Timothy Smith, director of Countrylarge.
“Our partnership with North Star will see us helping Room2 to expand across the UK in major cities, and we expect this is the first of many projects.”
North Star and Countrylarge’s hotel will be operated by Room2, part of Lamington Group.
Elsewhere in the North West, Room2 is lined up to operate a 190-bedroom hotel in Liverpool city centre that is being developed by Iliad Group.
In 2019, Manchester City Council granted Toyoko consent to create a 23-storey tower with 354 bedrooms on the Piccadilly site. The developer also planned to refurbish the neighbouring Union Building.
Plans for a hotel on the plot go back as far as 2013, when proposals for a Yotel-operated building were put forward. However, this scheme did not progress.
Both the Toyoko and Yotel developments were designed by Stephenson Studio. It has not yet been confirmed if the project team, which also included Avison Young as planning consultant, will be retained going forward.
