Whitbread gets green light to rebuild fire-damaged Premier Inn
Premier Inn owner Whitbread has been granted planning permission to rebuild a hotel and restaurant in Bristol's Cribbs Causeway.
Planning permission, granted by South Gloucestershire Council, will allow Whitbread to build a new hotel and restaurant after the original 177-bedroom property was severely damaged by fire in July 2019.
Richard Aldread, head of construction in the UK regions and Ireland at Whitbread, said it was "positive news" for the company and city, where the chain has operated a hotel at Cribbs Causeway for over 15 years. He said that the new design will deliver a "latest specification Premier Inn in an important and popular location".
"We have been working on the plans for many months but with planning permission now granted, we're looking forward to getting onto site later this summer and our aim is to have the building complete by the end of 2021," he added.
The new hotel, designed by Axiom Architects with TowerEight appointed to project manage the build, will follow the same U-shaped building footprint as the previous hotel but with a simpler and more up to date design style. The plans include six additional hotel bedrooms, taking the room count to 183, and the section of the building facing onto Cribbs Causeway has been raised by a storey to accommodate an undercroft car parking area.
In addition to the accommodation, a 150-cover restaurant and meeting rooms, are also included in the designs and will be available for residents and guests.
Whitbread has said it expects a high-level of demand once the new hotel is open. It will operate with strict safety procedures, including the provision of hand sanitiser, screens at check-in, floor markings to enforce social distancing and enhanced hygiene and cleaning regimes.
Premier Inn has over 800 hotels and more than 78,000 bedrooms across the UK and Ireland and has expansion plans in the German market where it expects to operate 20 hotels across the country by the end of 2020.
