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Whitbread PLC, the parent company of Premier Inn, the UK’s largest hotel company, has announced plans to build a new 82-bedroom Premier Inn in Chichester satisfying the company’s long-term goal to secure a second hotel in the cathedral city.
The site on Bognor Road, which was acquired from Hanbury Properties, is located adjacent to the main A27 / A259 junction, offering a highly accessible location for business and leisure travellers looking to spend time in the historic city.
This new location complements the existing Premier Inn at Gate Leisure Park to the south west of Chichester city centre and brings the total number of Premier Inn bedrooms in the Chichester catchment to 165, completing Whitbread’s network plan for the city.
Whitbread Acquisitions Manager Louise Woodruff said:
“From Roman ruins to the racing circuit at Goodwood, Chichester’s diverse cultural offer and successful business economy is fuelling year-round demand for high-quality, affordable hotel bedrooms from our customers.
“This consistent demand has underpinned our search for a suitable second Premier Inn location in Chichester which we are pleased to have acquired from Hanbury Properties, who have provided us with a fully serviced site, ready for development in the Spring.
“Purchasing the site freehold shows how flexible we can be to bring high-quality locations like this one into our pipeline, and our in-house development team is itching to get started and begin constructing our newest hotel in southern England later this year.”
James Belbin, Director of Hanbury Properties, said:
“We’re delighted to complete the sale of this site to Premier Inn and look forward to seeing their plans come to life. It’s an excellent location for a new hotel and will help to underpin the next phase of development at Cathedral Business Park.
“The site was a former WWII fuel depot that required significant investment, including full remediation, a new slip lane and traffic light junction off the A259, bus stop, a 220m estate road, and services under the A27 to facilitate development – so it’s not been the most straightforward site to deliver.
“This sale represents the culmination of all that hard work. It’s been a pleasure working with all the acquisition team at Premier Inn to bring this site forward, and it’s great to know that this hotel will create valuable jobs and help contribute positively to the local community in the years to come.”
The Bognor Road acquisition is Whitbread’s latest commitment to investing across Sussex and the south coast of England where it sees a strong opportunity to grow Premier Inn.
Later this year the business is set to expand its network of trading hotels in West and East Sussex to 23 locations following the opening of its newest Premier Inn on Bognor Regis Seafront in April.
The construction of the first Premier Inn in Littlehampton Town Centre is also due to commence in February following the completion of the demolition of the former supermarket occupying the site. Whitbread is also seeking a new location for Premier Inn in Rye.
The acquisition of the Chichester location forms part of Whitbread’s ongoing expansion of Premier Inn across the UK and Ireland. Currently the business offers its customers close to 86,000 bedrooms from more than 840 hotels and it sees the long-term potential to expand to 125,000 rooms in these two core markets.
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