Brum is flavour of the month for Sanguine

Bristol-based Sanguine Hospitality, backed by Downing Corporate Finance and Rathbones, is in talks to buy the former Kennedy Tower office block at Snow Hill Plaza from Manchester-based Bruntwood. The deal is contingent on planning being achieved to turn the property into a 224-bedroom budget hotel. Over the past two weeks, Sanguine has announced it will be the leisure anchor at The Cube (4 December, p33), in a £10m deal backed by Downing Corporate Finance and has won the operating contract to manage the proposed Hampton by Hilton Hotel within the revamped former Cumberland House on Broad Street. Sanguine chairman Simon Matthews-Williams said: “We are delighted to be involved with a third hotel scheme in Birmingham. Kennedy Tower will be a much larger project but will again involve an international brand.” Bruntwood development director Peter Crowther added: “Kennedy Tower has lain vacant for the past 20 years. It’s a poor example of stock on a gateway site. We bought it as an opportunistic buy. If the deal with Sanguine doesn’t go ahead, we’ll go ahead with our plans to refurb it as an office building.” lisa.pilkington@estatesgazette.com To access all EGi news stories and commercial property data sign up for a free trial today, or visit the subscription options page to find out more.