Located at Kingsway, London WC2, the 160-bedroom hotel will be the fourth Club Quarters hotel in central London, and will aim to appeal to a “no frills” business clientele.
Club Quarters is also seeking a restaurant operator for the site, and has appointed property consultants Davis Coffer Lyons to market the venue.
Club Quarters, which currently has 14 hotels across the UK and the US, aims to offer three- to four-star service to business guests at reduced prices by operating a members’ scheme. All aspects of the hotel are adapted for the business traveller, including free internet and use of printers as well as modern workstations in rooms.
Each hotel in the group’s portfolio also includes a restaurant that is open to the public, but that also serves hotel guests and undertakes room service.
Club Quarters restaurant
The restaurant at the new Club Quarters at Kingsway will cover around 10,000 sq ft, including around 2,000 sq ft of terrace space as well as an inside basement area with “exceptional” floor to ceiling height.
Davis Coffer Lyons said the open plan restaurant area has the “potential to be quite a grand space”. The restaurant could include around 200 seated covers plus a bar with a further 50 covers, while the terrace could accommodate 80 – 100 covers.
“This is a really impressive space both in terms of size and grandeur, with two prime entrances and an al fresco dining terrace,” said Rob Meadows, restaurant consultant at Davis Coffer Lyons.
“Kingsway is one of London’s main through-roads, with high pedestrian footfall and close to Covent Garden and the London School of Economics. The area is bustling with Londoners, day trippers and international tourists and is very much in need of a quality, innovative dining concept to enhance the range of catering provisions on offer in the area.
“The space can provide the opportunity to establish an iconic restaurant and it is rare to find this size of premises with a large al fresco terrace in this part of London.”
Multiple concept venue
Meadows told BigHospitality that Club Quarters would be particularly keen to see an all-day food offer that would appeal to a broad consumer base.
“I think it’s quite important for the space to be able to operate a multiple-concept venue, for example coffees, pastries, drinks, lunches, fine dining. I think that would be the best use of the space and the most profitable for whoever’s going in as well,” he said.
The restaurant space would be leased under a regular commercial lease agreement, he said, and Club Quarters are hoping to “get underway” within the next six weeks so that the restaurant can start to be fitted out.