Facelift completed at city centre hotel

Building company Clegg Construction has completed a £1.8m design and build project at a well-known Leeds hotel.

The contractor, which has an office in Thorpe Park, carried out a complete recladding of the Premier Inn on Hepworth Point off Clay Pit Lane.

The work included stripping back the cladding to the substrate, designing and installing new steel masonry supports, and fitting new, upgraded cladding to building’s facades.

Sam Parker, contracts manager for Clegg Construction, said the project had presented a range of challenges that the company needed to overcome to successfully deliver the contract.

He said: “The hotel remained open throughout the duration of the project, so we needed to carefully consider the safety and comfort of the guests by planning and sequencing the works around them to ensure no disruption.

“Also, the COVID pandemic was in full swing as we were carrying out the works and successive lockdowns and general disruption it caused did have an impact.

Sam Parker

“Adding to the challenge was the hotel’s location in Leeds city centre and close to the Arena – it is a very busy area in terms of both vehicles and pedestrians.

“These, along with some unforeseen issues we discovered once we started to remove the existing cladding, made for an interesting but challenging job.”

Clegg Construction was awarded the contract by Whitbred PLC – Premier Inn’s parent company – after recently completing a £5m contract to remove and replace the cladding at Waterside House, an 18-storey private apartment building on Globe Road, Leeds, which also remained fully occupied while the works were carried out.

The company is an approved supplier to Whitbred PLC and has completed a number of projects for Premier Inn including the conversion of a vacant office tower above the Arndale Shopping Centre in Headingley, Leeds, into a 96-bedroom Premier Inn Hotel.

Parker added: “This was an interesting job at a well-known building in the city,” he said. “We were delighted to have been appointed to carry it out and we’re very pleased with the results.”

Clegg Construction was established in the 1930s and works across a range of sectors including education, accommodation, commercial, mixed use, framework, industrial, public sector, retail and car showrooms, leisure, and healthcare.