Premier Inn parent buys Leeds office block for conversion
Hospitality group Whitbread has acquired the 42,000 sq ft Verity House, close to Tower Works, for redevelopment into a 120-bedroom hotel.
Whitbread has taken on the freehold of the building, close to Leeds station and much of the regeneration that has so far taken place in the South Bank area.
The detached building, which was built in 2000, is L-shaped, and the new owner will press on with putting together a planning application, in which it will finalise the number of rooms.
Whitbread was advised by WSB, while the vendor was advised by Commercial Property Partners.
Jill Anderson, acquisitions manager for Whitbread, said: “Whitbread has a long and successful track record of converting office buildings into popular budget hotels.
“It is a proven route to expanding our presence in popular locations like Leeds city centre where development opportunities are limited and where we have a requirement to grow.
“Converting offices into hotels also provides obvious benefits to the environment by extending the life of existing buildings and reducing the embodied carbon of development.”
The deal builds on Premier Inn’s already strong presence in the city, said Anderson, while it is also confirmed as the operator of the hotel within Leeds City Council’s Kirkgate market redevelopment, where planning consent was secured late in 2023.
She continued: “Verity House makes for a superb hotel location given its proximity to the station and all the amenities in Leeds city centre. It complements our existing network of eight Premier Inn’s across the city and as a freehold purchase it demonstrates Whitbread’s willingness to take on planning and development risk to secure exceptional locations for our guests.
“The location has huge potential and I’m looking forward to working with the City Council’s planning team on repurposing the building.”
Publicly listed, Whitbread’s stable of brands includes Beefeater, Brewers Fayre, Table Table, Bar + Block, Whitbread Inns and Cookhouse + Pub.
