Peterborough councillors urged to take control of partially-built Hilton Garden Inn to ensure high quality completion
Fears voiced alternative developer would create ‘lower standard’ hotel
Peterborough councillors will today (May 30) be asked to back moves to take control of the partially-finished £30 million Hilton Garden Inn in a bid to ensure the city gets a high quality hotel.
Members at an ‘extraordinary’ meeting of the Peterborough City Council’s ruling cabinet will be recommended by officers to approve the submission of a credit bid to take the hotel at Fletton Quays out of administration.
It will protect the local authority’s £16.7 million investment – made up of a £15 million loan from 2017 plus £1.7 million of interest - in the nine-storey luxury hotel that stands alongside the River Nene.
The bid will be submitted to Teneo, the administrators appointed by the council after it took the hotel developers, Fletton Quays Hotel, into administration last October following a prolonged period where construction work did not take place.
Councillors will also be asked to reject a third party bid from Propiteer backed by a multi-national finance provider.
They will be told that the bid is lower than the council loan.
And in a document to be submitted to the meeting, which will take place in private, councillors will be warned an alternative developer is unlikely to finish the hotel to the high standards expected for a flagship project.
"It is also questionable whether the hotel could be completed to the high standard expected of this flagship regeneration site, during earlier discussions with the parties involved, there was talk of a lower standard hotel or an asylum seekers hotel.”
While no new money will be needed to secure control of the hotel, councillors will be reminded that £10 million has been set aside to complete the hotel, a move that was approved by councillors four months ago.
A council spokesperson has previously told the Peterborough Telegraph: “The fact is, we don’t know entirely how much it’ll cost to complete the hotel, but what’s behind all of this is the ambition to see that hotel completed and get our investment back and that will require putting in what we need to to make that happen and then we will operate the hotel to the point we get that money back.”