Eleventh hour bid to halt the sale of Peterborough’s Hilton Garden Inn is foiled

Councillors at an ‘extraordinary’ review meeting today (October 20) voted by six to four to uphold a decision made earlier this month to put the nine storey building at Fletton Quays on the open market.

It means administrators Teneo will now be instructed to sell the unfinished building to the highest bidder.

The original decision to sell the building was made by Peterborough City Council’s ruling cabinet on October 2.

But that was ‘called in’ by three councillors who wanted the decision reviewed to ensure the council would get best value for the unfinished hotel and ensure that it did become a Hilton Garden Inn.

Construction of the hotel was a local authority project for its flagship regeneration scheme at Fletton Quays and in 2017 gave a £15 million loan to the developer to kickstart work.

The council had to call in the administrator, Teneo, in 2023 after the developer ran out of money and stopped work and it is not expected that the local authority will recover all its money.

Conservative Councillor John Howard, who was one of the three who called in the decision, told the Sustainable Future City Council Scrutiny Committee: “I am concerned we will not get the best value for Peterborough just by selling.”

Cllr Howard said he would like the council to make a credit bid to the administrator for the building so that the local authority controlled the building and could then seek a commercial partner to complete it and run it.”

The committee was told by officers that the profits for a buyer would be in ensuring the building became a high-end hotel and that there has been a lot of interest from private firms.

Cllr Steve Allen said: “It is important not to lose sight of the original vision which was for a four star hotel at Fletton Quays.”

He said selling would mean the council would have lost control of the building.

He said: “It is more than a building – it is a statement about the kind of city that we have.”

But Cllr Amjad Iqbal warned: “What do we really achieve if we send this matter back to council?”

Cllr Polly Geraghty, the committee chair, said: “I think we all want to secure the best value for our city.

"But we have reached different conclusions about how do do this.”

Afterwards, Cllr Howard said: “I am disappointed with the outcome.

"So the hotel will now be sold to the highest bidder and we have to hope that it is a sensible bid and they have good intentions to finish it as a Hilton hotel as the original concept was.

"My concern is we are a few years from knowing if we have made the wrong decision today but my argument is that we would have been better off to seek a partnership, build out and finish the hotel ourselves.

“It might have taken a few years to recoup the money but I still believe we would have recoupled all the money in the end.

"I think what we have seen is a change of direction which is a choice to go down the sale route rather than to exhaust the other options. There has been a change in direction from the advice that was given to us originally.”

Cllr Mohammed Jamil, the council’s cabinet member for finance and corporate governance, said: “I am delighted that the majority of the committee has seen sense.

"Sending it back to council or cabinet would be to waste more of our time.

"We need to move on this as it has cost us money.

"The quicker we move on and get a sale agreed the quicker this episode can be finalised.

“We are in a situation where the building is getting worse by the day,

"The committee saw the options were not really that strong and that all they would do is buy a bit of time but that time would cost us and I am glad that the scrutiny committee has come up with the best decision.”