Village Hotels is looking to double the size of its business over the next five years.
The UK-based brand, which currently has 28 hotels across the country in locations including Liverpool, Manchester, Birmingham and Cardiff, is planning to secure a total portfolio of around 60 hotels by 2023.
It has identified 55 target locations in UK towns and cities where it wants to open hotels. It does not yet have a presence in central London, and has identified 15 locations within the capital.
Village Hotels works predominantly as an owner operator, and will be looking to secure freehold sites as well as development opportunities.
The Village Hotels standard model as outlined in its development brochure has 153 keys, with full amenity. This includes a licensed pub, restaurant, on-site Starbucks, meeting and events venue, state-of-the-art gym with heated swimming pool, and car parking. It is looking for sites with a footprint of around 2.5 acres, but would be more flexible when considering city centre sites.
In 2016 the company hired John Bates, the former head of acquisitions at Premier Inn and Travelodge, to run its expansion plan. He said: “We see a gap in the market for the kind of quality, all round offer that Village provides. That’s why we’re announcing 55 target locations and looking to work with partners who can help us to unlock the next chapter in the Village growth story. With investment capital in place, we’re fully funded and ready to go. Now it’s all about accessing the right locations and bringing the best sites into our operating estate.”
It has raised finance for the first phase of expansion, and expects to invest around £80-100m per annum over the next five years, to fund the development programme. Each new site would typically represent an investment of around £20m, which would include land and development costs.
Village Hotels is owned by US private equity firm KSL Capital Partners. KSL acquired the group in 2014 in a £485m deal with De Vere Group. At the time there were 25 hotels in the portfolio, with three under construction in Aberdeen, Glasgow and Edinburgh.
When the deal completed, KSL hired former Malmaison and Hotel du Vin chief executive Gary Davis to head up the business.
There are currently three projects in the pipeline – one in Portsmouth (pictured) under construction at Lakeside North Harbour and set to open in Q4 2017, one in Bristol which is on site for construction at the Horizon 38 scheme at Filton, due to open in Q3 2018, and one in Basingstoke where it is currently contracting to be part of the Basing View development.
Over the past 12 months it has also completed a £40m estate refurbishment programme of its existing assets.
Requirement
■ Building footprint – 20,000 sq ft
■ Gross internal area – 70,000 sq ft
■ Building height – 23m
Provincial targets
■ Basingstoke
■ Bath
■ Belfast
■ Bracknell
■ Brighton
■ Cambridge
■ Derby
■ Eastbourne
■ Eastleigh
■ Guildford
■ Hemel Hempstead
■ High Wycombe
■ Horsham
■ Leicester
■ Maidenhead
■ Milton Keynes
■ Newbury
■ Northampton
■ Norwich
■ Oxford
■ Peterborough
■ Reading
■ Sheffield
■ Southend
■ St Albans
■ Staines
■ Tunbridge Welles
■ Waltham Cross
■ Warwick
■ Watford
■ Windsor
■ Woking
■ Worcester
■ Worthing
■ York
London borough targets
■ Barnet – Brent Cross
■ Bexley – Dartford
■ Brent – Wembley
■ Bromley – Bromley
■ Bromley – Orpington
■ Croydon – Croydon
■ Ealing – Hanger Lane
■ Greenwich – Greenwich/Woolwich
■ Havering – Romford
■ Hillingdon – Uxbridge
■ Kingston Upon Thames – Kingston
■ Newham – Stratford
■ Richmond Upon Thames – Richmond
■ Southwark – Southwark
■ Sutton – Sutton
City centre targets
■ Birmingham
■ Manchester
■ Bristol
■ Salford
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