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UK hotel business, Whitbread, has announced plans to bring its Premier Inn hotel brand to the Lion Yard Shopping Centre in Cambridge by mid-2024.
The announcement comes as Whitbread has agreed a lease with investment and asset manager abrdn to convert some vacant office space above the shopping centre into a 125-bedroom hotel.
According to the group, this will be its first Premier Inn in the centre of Cambridge and its fourth location across the city, growing its room count to more than 425 bedrooms in the area.
Construction work has already begun this month on the hotel, which will feature the brand’s latest format ‘standard’ and enhanced Premier Plus bedrooms, as well as its integrated ground floor F&B space.
The new hotel is expected to create approximately 30 new jobs on opening, with recruitment focused locally.
Whitbread currently operates 82,000 Premier Inn and hub by Premier Inn bedrooms in the UK and Ireland, and has a long-term target to achieve 125,000 UK and Ireland rooms.
Paul Smith, acquisitions manager for Whitbread, said: “We have an excellent track record of converting former office spaces into vibrant and successful Premier Inn and hub by Premier Inn hotels. We were able to take this experience to abrdn and work with them to develop plans to convert a redundant office above the popular Lions Yard shopping centre into a latest format Premier Inn hotel.
“This acquisition will allow our business and leisure customers to stay in a unique location in the very heart of historic Cambridge. Our partner abrdn also benefits from a secure, indexed-linked income stream from Whitbread and our expertise at converting existing spaces into thriving hotels.”
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