The development was considered and passed by the Planning Committee for the council last week and will see Washington House on New Bailey Street demolished to be replaced with a hotel, office space and other leisure and retail units which could be occupied by restaurants or bars.
The hotel will be accessed from New Bailey Street and the development, next to Salford Central train station and across the River Irwell from the Spinningfields development, will look onto the Mark Addy pub which has been open since 1981.
The plans were submitted by TIMEC 1209 Ltd, a subsidiary firm of the McAleer & Rushe group who were behind several UK hotel developments in the past including Aloft London Excel, W Hotel Leicester Square and several Premier Inn and Jurys Inn projects.
3-star
The hotel design, based on a brief for an as-yet unknown '3-star hotelier', includes 271 bedrooms, a restaurant and bar, and first floor conference and meeting suites.
Across two u-shaped buildings, one for office space and one for the hotel, the development will form part of the English Cities Fund (ECF) Salford Central commercial district.
The developers have been in close dialogue with the ECF in drawing up the plans for the City Wharf project which the plans say will connect with the city and the nearby river as an 'entrance marker' to Salford and will be memorable but 'of it's place'.
Third hotel
Although the developers declined to comment on the project Councillor Derek Antrobus, lead member for planning at Salford City Council said the plans were consistent with what the council expected for the area which could easily take another hotel.
"We believe that despite the current slowdown in the property market, in the medium to long term the regional centre will continue to grow and it is already the economic powerhouse for the north-west in terms of Gross Value Added (GVA). Travel and tourism will be an important part of that growth and the part of the regional centre that lies in Salford is one of the areas which can accommodate that expansion," he said.
"It is not surprising that this is the third proposal approved for a hotel in the area in the past 12 months. Another has been given outline permission on a site next to the Lowry Hotel and a third involves the conversion of the former Brown Brothers building at the corner of Chapel Street and Trinity Way," Antrobus added.