Hortons’ Estate announces investment plans for The Grand Hotel in Birmingham

The award-winning redevelopment of The Grand, one of Birmingham’s most iconic buildings, will be completed with the opening of a 180-bedroom hotel.

Hortons’ Estate, owner of the Grade II* listed building on Colmore Row, has signed a conditional partnership agreement with the Principal Hotel Company, which owns and operates 39 hotels across the UK.

The hotel at The Grand is Principal’s first investment in Birmingham. In addition to the 180 bedrooms and suites, the hotel will include extensive conferencing and banqueting space, including the historic Grosvenor Suite, a restaurant and bar, a spa and the city’s first rooftop infinity pool.

The interior will be designed by Robert Angell Design to direction from Kemper Hyers at Starwood Capital and the in-house Principal design team.

The hotel is scheduled to open in early 2019.

The Grand was developed by the Horton Family between 1879 and 1895 and contained shops, offices and the Grand Hotel, which the family ran until 1969. The hotel was subsequently managed by a number of operators until it closed in 2002.

Since 2009 Hortons’ Estate has invested £25 million in the award-winning restoration of the building resulting in the creation of ten new shops and 11,000 sq. ft of offices fronting Colmore Row, together with significant re-modelling of the interior of the former hotel.

The work has been supported by grants from Greater Birmingham and Solihull Local Enterprise Partnership, Birmingham City Council and Historic England.

Tony Green, chief executive of Hortons’ Estate, said: “We have always believed that the restoration of The Grand would not be complete if it did not include a luxury hotel. After considerable time and effort we have chosen to work with Principal on the project because they share our commitment to creating the city’s finest hotel and because of their impressive track record working on similar buildings in other major cities.”

Principal Hotel Company, which is currently embarked on a £250 million investment programme, is a portfolio company of controlled affiliates of Starwood Capital Group, an American private investment firm that manages more than $51 billion of assets.

In November 2016, Starwood Capital Group launched Principal, a collection of city-centre hotels based in landmark buildings in exceptional locations across the United Kingdom. The creation of Principal is a part of Starwood Capital Group’s rebranding of its portfolio of U.K. hotels under the new name of Principal Hotel Company, which also comprises De Vere – modern, country estate hotels, with mansion houses at their heart, mixing leisure with market-leading conference facilities.

Cody Bradshaw, managing director and head of European hotels at Starwood Capital Group, said: “The Grand is a magnificent building in a great location. I have no doubt it can once again become the best hotel in the city.

“By adding Birmingham to our portfolio of city-centre Principal hotels, we further strengthen what is already arguably the finest collection of UK hotels ever to be assembled under a single group.”

Tony Troy, chief executive officer of Principal Hotel Company, said: “The partnership with Hortons not only consolidates the strength of our newly launched Principal brand, it also shows the confidence that our partners and our investors have in the potential of what we have created, potential that is already being realised by The Principal Manchester, The Principal York and The Principal Edinburgh George Street.

“Our plans for 2017 include the opening of our flagship hotel, The Principal London on Russell Square, as well as a second Principal Hotel in Edinburgh; with city-centre hotels in Glasgow, Cardiff, Liverpool, Leeds and Oxford joining PRINCIPAL in late 2017 and over the course of 2018.’