ENTREPRENEURS Sandy Orr and Donald MacDonald have sold a city centre hotel in Edinburgh to an Israeli firm in a multi-million deal that signals continued overseas interest in the leisure market in Scotland following the Brexit vote.
The businessmen sold their interests in the hotel on Morrison Link near Haymarket station to Leonardo Hotels, which has made its first move in to the Edinburgh market.
The deal comes around 20 years after Mr Orr and Mr MacDonald developed the property with architect Andrew Doolan. The team won backing from Whitbread.
Mr Doolan’s family retained a holding in the hotel after he died suddenly from respiratory failure in 2004, aged 52.
Mr Orr said: “Donald and I with Pat Findlay on behalf of Andy’s family are pleased to see this large, beautifully designed hotel pass to Leonardo Hotels.”
Kerr Young, a director in the hotels team at JLL surveyors who advised on the deal, said: “Edinburgh is a highly sought after location for investors keen to acquire hotel real estate in one of the best performing markets in Europe.”
He noted that the Brexit vote in June does not appear to have affected demand among investors for properties in Edinburgh or Glasgow.
Mr Young said JLL has hotel assets under offer across Scotland with interest coming from other parts of the UK and overseas.
Investors in south and east Asia appear to be especially keen to put their money to work in the UK hotel market.
The 282 bedroom hotel on Edinburgh’s Morrison Street acquired by Lenoardo Hotels has been operated by Whitbread as a Premier Inn since it was opened in the 1990s.
It will be rebranded as a Leonardo hotel, by the new owner the European arm of Israel’s Fattal Hotels Group.
The sale will allow Whitbread to raise funds to invest in other projects.
Whitbread is investing heavily in hotels in Edinburgh. In March the leisure giant said it planned to open 860 new bedrooms across the capital this year.
The company plans to develop a new 190-bed hotel near Haymarket station.
Whitbread recently opened the first hotel in its new Hub by Premier Inn format outside London on the New Waverley development in Edinburgh’s old town. It also opened a Premier Inn on the development.
Mr Orr spent 13 years practising law in Oban before moving into the hotels trade.
He and son David sold their Mint hotel chain to Blackstone in 2011 in a deal reportedly worth £600 million.
The business which began life as City Inn ran eight four star hotels at the time, including one at Finnieston Quay in Glasgow.
Mr Orr’s other interests include a stake in the Harviestoun Brewery business.
The son of a miner, Mr Doolan left St Ninian’s High School in Kirkintilloch with one qualification in engineering drawing.
He studied at night to gain architectural qualifications.
Mr Doolan specialised in urban regeneration projects and restored 14 sites in the Merchant City area of Glasgow.
The RIAS Doolan award for the best building in Scotland bears his name.
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