Queensgate Investments has submitted plans to Kensington and Chelsea to redevelop the Kensington Forum Hotel, next to Gloucester Road station, SW7.
The fifth-largest hotel in the UK will be demolished to make way for a new 30-storey building. A newly proposed hotel will provide 749 bedrooms, as well as 340 serviced apartments and 46 homes, 20 of which will be affordable.
The existing hotel built in 1972, operated under the Holiday Inn brand, currently provides 906 bed spaces. It will be replaced by a luxury hotel, designed to accommodate an upper 4/5 star operator.
The new plans will provide 870,000 sq ft of space, an increase of around 315,000 sq ft. The hotel offer includes conference, gym and restaurant/bar facilities that are “commensurate to the scale and nature of a superior quality hotel”, according to Queensgate.
Queensgate Investments, a partnership between the Kow Family, LJ Partnership and Peterson Group, acquired the site from Apollo Global in December 2015 for around £400m.
Along with joint venture partner Arora Group it acquired and developed the 452 bed, 5-star Intercontinental Hotel, on Greenwich Peninsula, next to the O2, formerly the Millennium Dome, SE10.
Queensgate subsequently sold its 50% stake for around £100m in 2016, with Arora taking full control. The Intercontinental also has 142 private homes, serviced apartments and Europe’s single largest conference venue.
Rockwell is acting as development manager for the Kensington Forum Hotel scheme. It was founded by Donal Mulryan in 2015. Donal co-founded Ballymore with his brother Sean Mulryan in 1986. He left the Irish developer in 2002. Between 2002 and 2013 Donal Mulryan ran West Properties, a property development company focused in Manchester.
The current building, designed Richard Seifert and Partners, was built by Penta, a group formed by five major airlines to primarily provide accommodation for their air crews using Heathrow Airport. The hotel continues to have a strong affiliation with the airport, with a significant proportion of the hotel regularly occupied by airline crew and staff.
It has a year-round occupancy of 93%, far above the London average, which is closer to 80%. It is understood no operator has been lined up to run the hotel.
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