Olympian Homes and Whitbread have appointed JLL to find a funding partner for a major student-led development within Bristol’s £700m St James Square regeneration scheme.
The mixed-use scheme is set to become Bristol’s tallest building.
JLL launched the funding search for the site today and is looking at several options, including forward funding and joint ventures.
Proposals for St James House, which have planning approval, comprise two towers: one of 28 storeys containing 442 student beds, and the other rising to 18 storeys and containing 132 co-living homes. Twenty per cent of the co-living units will be affordable.
The scheme, approved by Bristol City Council in February, will replace the 1970s-built Premier Inn at Bristol’s Haymarket. It has been designed by Hodder + Partners and will also include around 200,000 sq ft of public space.
Whitbread submitted a pre-application enquiry to Bristol City Council in 2020 regarding demolishing the Premier Inn. It appointed Olympian Homes as developer in the following year.
The existing building was granted planning permission in 1967 and built in the 1970s as an office block. The property was repurposed as a hotel by Whitbread in 1999.
The project is not Whitbread’s first foray into student accommodation. Last year, a Whitbread-owned Premier Inn hotel in Manchester gained consent for redevelopment as a £200m student housing scheme.
Image from Olympian Homes
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