French hotel operator Accor has unveiled plans to turn Manchester’s historic Free Trade Hall into a £30m four-star hotel.
Detailed proposals for the 233-bed luxury hotel are to be submitted imminently. The local council and developers Le Sande and Taylor Woodrow have signed a legal agreement with an obligation to develop the site subject to consent.
The famous hall’s listed façade will be retained and linked to the new-build hotel by a glass atrium on Southmill Street.
Lambert Smith Hampton and GVA Grimley are letting agents for the scheme. Grimley’s head of retail, Martin Vickerman, said: “We’ve been through a long and detailed process and have come up with an exciting scheme which maintains the integrity of the Free Trade Hall.”
Vickerman confirmed work is anticipated to start on site by summer, with the development open in time for the Commonwealth Games in the city in 2002.
English Heritage, a key objector to the original scheme, has worked closely with the council on the revised plans. The original plans for a 24-storey block on the site were thrown out in October 1998.
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