Work starts on 187-bed Piccadilly Gardens hotel
Criterion Capital, Asif Aziz’s development company, has secured planning permission to convert the upper floors of the Royal Buildings in Manchester into a Zedwell hotel.
Plans submitted for Criterion by Savills included transforming the upper four floors Royal Buildings to craft the hotel rooms. The ground floor of the block will remain unchanged, according to the designs by Buttress Architects.
Work on the project started at the beginning of this year. Criterion aims to open the hotel in the first quarter of 2026. Before that can happen, a language school that occupies two floors will have to move. The school is to relocate in June.
The arrival of Zedwell marks a return to form for the Manchester site, which had housed the former Royal Hotel until it was demolished in 1909.
“The addition of a high quality and affordable hotel is welcome news for Manchester and its ever-growing tourism economy,” said Jay Patel, planning director at Savills.
“In keeping with the concept of the brand’s other four existing sites in London, the new hotel will focus on promoting quality sleep, positive health and holistic wellbeing,” Patel continued.
“With a very different focus to Manchester’s current hotel offering, Zedwell Hotels use a nature-inspired décor with calming colours, natural or recycled materials, and no TVs in cocoon-like rooms to promote deep rest.”
Aziz said his company was “fully committed to building a viable and deliverable scheme”.
He added later: “Bringing Zedwell to Manchester was always in the plan and now we have found the perfect location. It was important that we worked with a local team and the plans for the hotel have been designed by Manchester-based Buttress Architects.
“The new Zedwell Hotel will be targeting short-term stays and people travelling through Manchester using the excellent transport links of both Piccadilly Gardens and Piccadilly station,” he concluded.
This Manchester hotel is part of Zedwell’s larger expansion, with the brand set to open eight more hotels before 2026, bringing the total number of hotels in its portfolio to 12. The existing three Zedwells are all based in London.
Learn more about the hotel by searching reference number 137450/FO/2023 on Manchester City Council’s planning portal.
