Aloft Liverpool hotel sold to Fragrance Group off £12m guide price

The Aloft Liverpool hotel has been sold to Singapore-based developer Fragrance Group off a guide price in the region of £12m.

Joint agents Colliers and CBRE, who handled the deal on behalf of seller North John Street, did not disclose the exact sale price.

The property was built around the year 1900 as the head office of the Royal Insurance Company and was converted into a 116-bedroom hotel under the Aloft brand, now part of Marriott International, in 2014.

It features two restaurants and bars and several meeting and conference suites. The hotel posted a net turnover of £2.87m in 2019.

The Aloft Liverpool will continue to be operated by RBH Hospitality Management, which already operates six Fragrance Group hotels in the UK.

Julian Troup, head of hotels agency at Colliers, said: "Our instructions were to proceed in a confidential manner, and unsurprisingly significant interest was soon generated in this iconic hotel.

"The considerable level of interest follows a pattern of increasing demand for UK provincial hotels, particularly for global branded stock, and as a result a competitive bidding process was run amongst several overseas and domestic bidders.

"The sale of the Aloft adds to the high volume of our UK hotel sales that have been concluded during the year and demonstrates the increasing confidence from a diverse range of buyers."

Fragrance develops and owns hotels throughout Singapore and Australia and entered the UK hotel market in early 2017. Its developments include the Municipal Building in Liverpool, a former council building which is being converted into a luxury 186-room hotel due to open in October next year.

The group is also planning to turn Bath's former Royal Mineral Water Hospital into a luxury hotel and spa.