Sanguine to transform Hoylake hotel

The King's Gap Court Hotel in Hoylake, Wirral is to be redeveloped and turned into a Holiday Inn Express by leisure developer Sanguine Hospitality.

The £5.5m project designed by architects Falconer Chester Hall was granted planning consent by Wirral Council. Work will start in June with the 56-bed hotel expected to reopen in the second quarter of 2011.

The hotel will also contain a Frankie's restaurant. Frankie's is a joint venture between horse racing legend Frankie Dettori and chef Marco Pierre White.

Nick Taplin, managing director of Sanguine Hospitality, a multiple franchisee operating brands under licenses from the Wyndham, Intercontinental Hotels and Hilton groups, said: "There's a big demand for accommodation in Hoylake, largely due to its location and proximity to Royal Liverpool Golf Club, which played a big factor in our decision to increase investment when others in the industry are putting their plans on hold."

Royal Liverpool hosted the Open Championship in 2006 and will again in 2014.

Previous extensions to the building will be removed to return it closer to its original appearance to reflect the Conservation Area in which it stands.

Alastair Shepherd, of Falconer Chester Hall, said: "The new-look Kings Gap Court Hotel will provide the area with a high-quality hotel that will attract international visitors, as well as providing superb leisure and dining facility for local residents."

The premises were built as two private homes in the 19^th Century but were combined to become a hotel in the 1930s.

Wigan-based Sanguine was launched in 2007 by Paul Bolton, Simon Matthews-Williams and Taplin. It now owns seven hotels, mainly in the Merseyside area, with plans for more acquisitions on an opportunistic basis.