Quintain secures first prelet at Brum’s City Park Gate

  Quintain has secured the first prelet for its £250m mixed-use City Park Gate development in Birmingham’s Eastside regeneration zone.   The developer exchanged contracts with Hotel La Tour on Wednesday for the long leasehold disposal of Plot 4 at City Park Gate, located next to Moor Street Station.   The Hotel La Tour will be a four-star hotel, offering 200 rooms and around 12,000 sq ft of function and meeting room space.   Hotel la Tour has appointed Lewis & Hickey Architects to design the building and will build the scheme itself.   The deal with Quintain forms part of the hotel operator’s UK expansion plans, where it hopes to roll out 12 hotels in London and major cities across the country in the next five years.   City Park Gate will provide more than 1m sq ft of space including offices, residential and shops.   A planning application for the hotel will be submitted within the next two months.   If consent is granted the building will be completed by spring 2011.   Nick Shattock, Quintain’s deputy chief executive, said: “This disposal to Hotel La Tour fits well with our objectives for City Park Gate.   “Bringing this new brand to Eastside at the very start of the regeneration strengthens the offering of the entire area.”   Hotel La Tour was established in 2007 by hoteliers Alan English, Norman Bellone and Jane Schofield. Prior to this, the trio formerly headed up Hayley Conference Centres which was sold to Principle Hotels for £358m.   City Park Gate forms part of Eastside, a 420-acre site around Eastside, Digbeth and Deritend earmarked for Birmingham’s largest regeneration project.   Savills is advising Quintain.   lisa.pilkington@rbi.co.uk