Peterborough councillors approve creation of company to complete Hilton Garden Inn
Summer opening is hoped for goal
Councillors have backed a move to set up a company to oversee the completion of Peterborough’s Hilton Garden Inn.
Members of Peterborough City Council’s ruling cabinet approved recommendations that the local authority should establish its own company to ensure the future of the nine-storey unfinished hotel at Fletton Quays.
Members were told that a so-called ‘soft marketing’ exercise was being carried out over six weeks to assess market interest in the building.
They also heard the council was working with a range of consultants and working on the cost of the council completing the hotel itself.
The decision comes after the council’s £16.7 million credit bid for the nine-storey hotel at Fletton Quays was approved last month by administrators.
Councillors were told that transferring the hotel into a wholly owned company will be a ‘prudent’ action for legal and tax reasons.
It will mark the end of a nine-month-long process that began with the council taking the hotel developer, Fletton Quays Hotel, into administration last October after a prolonged period in which no construction work was carried out to the hotel.
The council is the preferred creditor having provided a £15 million loan to the developer in 2017 to kick start building work on the 160-bedroom hotel. With interest, the value of the loan stands at £16.7 million.
Members of the cabinet were told that a further report outlining options open to the council would come before them in the near future.
It is hoped the hotel can be finished and open for business next summer.