Motel One applies for Whitworth St licence
MOTEL One, the German budget hotel chain planning to open on the site of several buildings close to Piccadilly Station, has already applied for a liquor licence.
The 330-bed hotel’s construction requires the demolition of three buildings on either side of Monroe’s pub and hotel on Whitworth Street.
The application suggests work will get underway soon.
A public notice recording Motel One’s application has been fixed to the front of one of these buildings, the Hotel International.
The lease on the buildings, which expired on December 31, was held by Julian Lyons who ran the hotel, a pub called The Outpost and Legends nightclub. In total he employed 60 staff.
Most of them have been laid off but 12 have been retained at his new venture, a bar on Sackville Street called Sanctuary on Sackville.
The buildings were owned by Targetfollow and sold off when part of that business went into administration. They were picked up by London-based Olympian Homes which struck a development agreement with Motel One and secured planning in the summer.
Last month Mr Lyons told TheBusinesDesk.com: “We desperately tried to raise the funds to buy the building at auction, but unfortunately the people who now own it put in a bid pre-auction and it was accepted.”
No one at Olympian was available for comment. The nightclub Legends was the location of the Twisted Wheel club in the 1960s which is said to be the home of Northern Soul. A soul revival night has been held at the club for the past 12 years but bowed out on December 30.
