Today, Travelodge, the UK’s first budget hotel chain, which operates 592 hotels across the UK, Ireland and Spain has announced it has exchanged contracts for a fourth hotel in Norwich.
The proposed 91-room hotel is located in the heart of the city centre on the corner of Guildhall Hill and Dove Street, on the site of the city’s former famous department store, Chamberlin & Sons.
This hotel will be the group’s third hotel in Norwich city centre and eighth in Norfolk.
This development will be funded and delivered by a UK Pension Fund and represents an investment into the city of approximately £8–10 million and will create around 25 new jobs within the local community. Development work is expected to start in the latter part of the year.
Tony O’Brien, Travelodge, Development Director said: “We are delighted to be adding a fourth Travelodge to our Norwich hotel portfolio, in a prime location in Norwich city centre. The hotel will be built in a fantastic spot, on the site of the famous, former department store, Chamberlin & Sons, near to all of the central shops and attractions and will be a great place for our business and leisure customers to stay.
“Norwich is growing at pace, but there is a desperate need for good quality and great value accommodation, to meet the growing demand from business and leisure visitors visiting the area. This new development will strengthen our offering across the city centre and ensure we have Travelodge hotels close to all major attractions and Universities in the city.”
“We have great experience of converting redundant retail space into a Travelodge hotel and most-recently redeveloped a former British Homes Store into a Travelodge Plus hotel on the High Street in the heart of St Albans. This type of development is a win-win solution for all parties, as it brings redundant space back into economic use, encourages inward investment, creates new jobs, generates Business Rates income for the Council and attracts new business and leisure visitors to the area. It is also good news for the local economy, as Travelodge’s research shows that our customers will spend, on average, double their room rate in the local bars, restaurants, cafés, shops and attractions during their stay, which equates to a mufti-million boost to local businesses.”
“Travelodge opened 17 new hotels in 2021 and we are keen to open many more across the whole of Great Britain. This new deal in Norwich confirms our appetite and we are delighted to be working with a major Pension Fund to deliver this project.”
John Walker of property consultants Ward Hill Walker said: “This is very good news for Norwich. The upper floors of the building were converted into offices very many years ago and they have lain empty in recent times. The new Travelodge makes superb and appropriate use of a very high profile and underutilised building, in the heart of the city.
“The whole of the block will be brought into use to create a landmark hotel facility with superb views of Norwich. It will bring hundreds of visitors right into the city centre.
“This will be excellent news for the retail and leisure sectors in the city and help
fill the shortage of hotel beds in central Norwich. The city has strong year-round occupancy levels, with annualised occupancy higher than that of the wider UK regional market”.
Samuel Turner an Associate at Carter Jonas LLP Said: “This is the third hotel we have acquired on behalf of Travelodge in Norwich, which will provide them with full coverage of Norwich City centre. This acquisition is part of Travelodge’s expansion plans for further hotels across Norfolk. We have recently launched requirements for hotels in Cromer, Dereham, Diss, Fakenham, Great Yarmouth, Holt, Hunstanton, Norwich Airport and Swaffham.”
Travelodge currently operates three hotels in Norwich at the following locations:
1. Travelodge Norwich Central, Queens Road
2. Travelodge Norwich Central Riverside, St Vedast Street
3. Travelodge Norwich Cringleford
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