Asif Aziz’s Golfrate is to develop two hotels in Sutton, greater London, and this week secured Accor to manage both.
The offshore investment company is also in talks to bring Debenhams to the borough.
After spending most of last year selling stock to capitalise on unprecedented institutional and private investor demand, Golfrate bought over £150m in the final quarter, including the two hotel opportunities.
It will build a 200-bedroom, three-star hotel above Sutton’s St Nicholas Shopping Centre, which it bought for £78m from GE Capital in late November. Accor will manage it as an Ibis.
Golfrate will also build a 30,000 sq ft leisure park above the centre’s car park and a nine-storey tower of 212 flats on a vacant plot of land.
The shopping centre includes a department store let to Allders, which this week went into administration. A source close to Golfrate said Debenhams was interested in the centre, which has consent for a reconfigured 7,000 sq ft anchor store.
The second hotel will be developed at Sutherland House, a 70,000 sq ft, 12-storey office block close to the town centre with a short residual lease to the government. Golfrate bought the block, which was valued at £9.8m, from an offshore client of Cattaneo Commercial.
The hotel is likely to be a 100-bedroom, four-star Novotel managed by Accor, and the rest of the block will be turned into 100-plus flats. A total of 10,000 sq ft will be added. A source close to the deal said: “Golfrate sees this as an opportunity to create some badly needed hotel accommodation in Sutton.”
The borough has only one hotel, a Holiday Inn, which is included in the package being sold by Intercontinental Hotels Group.
Golfrate sold around 30% of Aziz’s £650m portfolio last year, trading dry assets for investments where it can add value.
The source added: “When things started to wind down late last year, opportunities were created where vendors wanted certainty of sale. Golfrate capitalised on this by offering lower bids but attended exchange of contracts to speed up the process.”
CBRE, Nelson Bakewell and Fleurets advised Golfrate.
