Budget hotel operator Travelodge has signed an agreement to run the former Kent International Hotel in Ramsgate.
The purpose-built, 57-bedroom hotel has a 50-cover restaurant, 35-cover atrium bar, 25-cover club bar, 125-cover banqueting suite, and three meeting rooms.
It has closed until summer 2011 for a £2m refurbishment, which will include the conversion of the public areas into new bedrooms. Travelodge will then operate the hotel with 68 bedrooms and a bar-café.
The operator is leasing the hotel from the Trustees of Morden College, which acquired the hotel from KPMG, the fixed charge receiver to Rosslane Investments.
Tony O’Brien, UK development director at Travelodge, said: “We have long coveted a site in Ramsgate and when we were informed that the Kent International had gone into receivership we acted immediately.”
Simon Stevens, a director of Christie & Co, which advised KPMG, said: “Ideally located to appeal to both corporate and leisure visitors and with a loyal customer base, the Kent International Hotel generated a significant amount of interest from national, regional and local operators, and subsequently multiple bids.”
Gerald Eve advised Morden College.
annabel.dixon@estatesgazette.com
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