LEP and council to contribute £6m towards the refurb of The Grand Hotel

THE Greater Birmingham and Solihull Local Enterprise Partnership (GBSLEP) and Birmingham City Council have agreed to provide £6m of grant support towards the cost of interior works at The Grand Hotel in Colmore Row.

The work to the hotel will complete the restoration of the Grade II Grand block, following on from £14m of works undertaken by its owner Hortons’ Estate.

This includes the restoration of the facades, installation of a new roof and remodeling of the Colmore Row shops and offices.

The first phase of the internal works will start immediately, creating nine of the 170 new bedrooms, lift shafts and plant rooms and adding a new external terrace and kitchen block. The project will take a year to complete. 

This will be followed by the fit-out of the hotel, including the restoration of the ornate Grosvenor Room and the grand staircase.

Hortons’ estimates the works will cost in excess of £25m and anticipates they will be completed in time for the hotel to open in 2018.

Tony Green, chief executive of Hortons’ Estate, said: “The works that we have undertaken to date have proved complex and expensive and have taken longer than we hoped to complete. However, we are delighted with the results and the public reaction to them.

“We have always been committed to bringing the whole building back into use, rather than simply restoring its fabric, but the hotel element has never been financially viable. 

“The grant has enabled us to move forward and we are very grateful to both the LEP and Birmingham City Council for their support.”

Some £4m of the grant funding is repayable, subject to the commercial success of the hotel.

GBSLEP board member Pat Hanlon said: “This support will not only bring another first class hotel into the city but also brings back to life one of our finest buildings.”

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