Whitbread has got the go-ahead from Arun District Council for a 116-bedroom Premier Inn on Bognor Regis seafront.
The new £13m hotel will be developed on Bognor Regis’s Esplanade, on the site of the old fire station, and encompasses part of the Regis Centre car park. It will be its second Premier Inn in the town.
Louise Woodruff, property acquisitions manager for Whitbread, said: “We’re fortunate at Premier Inn to have a customer base made up equally of business and leisure customers. The wide appeal of Premier Inn helps to drive the high year-round occupancy we experience across our network and informs the investment case for new locations like Bognor Regis seafront.”
She added: “The planning consent gives us the go-ahead to bring forward our multi-million-pound investment in Bognor town centre, create new jobs and help to support the local economy through the year-round spending of our guests.”
An economic impact assessment submitted as part of Whitbread’s planning application calculated that guests of the 116-bedroom hotel will spend about £2.8m pa in the Bognor Regis economy.
Reflecting Whitbread’s commitment to becoming a net zero business by 2050, the hotel will be powered by energy generated from renewable sources with air source heat pumps, heat recovery units and solar panels on site.
Whitbread currently operates a network of 849 Premier Inn hotels in the UK. The business believes there is potential for 125,000 Premier Inn rooms and is keen to grow its presence in coastal locations such as Bognor Regis as it expands.
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