THE £8 million refurbishment of an underused Art Deco gem in Glasgow as an aparthotel is nearing completion and already its operator is scouring the city for a second home for his new generation of high-end short-stay accommodation ventures.
Guy Nixon, founder and chief executive of Native, the London-based aparthotel chain now branching out into cities around the UK, will open his first Scottish venture – a collaboration with restaurant group Di Maggio's – in Q4, and he declared: “It will knock the socks off the market.”
Native Glasgow is housed in an Edwardian seven-storey building from the heyday of maritime Clydeside, and the plan was to "recreate the opulence of 1920s ocean liners".
Below the hotel are the Di Maggio’s-owned Anchor Line restaurant and Atlantic bar and brasserie, with the dovetail obvious.
Above the eateries in the former headquarters of the Anchor Line Shipping Company – the ocean liner company that operated from 1838 until it merged with Cunard in 1960 - will be 64 studio, one-bedroom and penthouse apartments.
As well as the glaring business attraction in St Vincent Place, Mr Nixon’s experience in the city and relationship he has built up with Di Maggio’s joint managing directors and co-owners Mario Gizzi and Tony Conetta have prompted him to launch a hunt for a second Glasgow premises, as well as one in Edinburgh.
The attraction of the Anchor Line building that increasingly drew Jamaican-born Mr Nixon north of the Border was dampened when an initial interest in it was met with rejection but the half-Scot whose family is from Ayrshire built up a strong partnership with the Glasgow-based businessmen behind Di Maggio's.
In an exclusive interview as the project nears completion, Mr Nixon said: “About four or five years ago we began a strategy of trying to establish a presence in all the major cities around the UK as well as continuing to grow our portfolio in London.
“So Glasgow has been a city that I’ve been spending a lot of time in over the years, trying to find an opportunity.
“We saw this building on the market about two years ago.
“Tony and Mario of Di Maggio's Restaurant Group (DRG) already owned the ground floor and basement but the upper floors were on the market and were semi-derelict.
“We tried to put together a package to buy that building working with, I don’t know whether I can mention her name actually, but quite a high-profile lady in Scotland through her private investment fund and she didn’t win the process."
Mr Nixon said: "Obviously with Mario and Tony already owning the ground floor and basement it made complete sense for them to wrap the whole building back into single ownership.
“So they won that bid process.
"We made contact once they had acquired it and said, ‘Look, we’re an aparthotel operator, we love this building, we’ve done a set of plans of what we think it could look like, can we come and see you?’
“So we went in to meet them. They ran a process with other operators that they could work with and made sure our bid was a sensible one.
“We won that process and we’ve been working with those guys over the last couple of years now on helping to refine the plans for the building, design what we are actually going to do with it in terms of carving it up, the number and configuration of the units, the look and feel of the refurbishment and we have a great working relationship with those guys.
"Obviously bringing in short-stay guests into the upper floors will bring in additional business for the ground floor and basement and that works really well for us too.”
It is promised the building will maintain a large amount of its original 1906 features including glazed tiles, terrazzo flooring, timber wall-panelling and fireplaces.
“We’ve got the original safe, still in the building, turned into a coat cupboard and wardrobe,” says Mr Nixon.
DRG has 18 restaurants across Scotland and includes brands such as Cafe Andaluz and Amarone as well as Di Maggio’s.
Mr Nixon said: “It’s a fantastic partnership, they are a real pleasure to deal with, and they are passionate about the building as are we, absolutely love it.
“It is an absolute beauty and I think what they have done is going to knock the socks off the market when they see it.
"It’s a real personal project for those guys to restore that building to its former glory."
The Anchor Line will provide the breakfast for the guests and the hotel bar will be the Atlantic downstairs.
Mr Gizzi said: "We bought the building in stages, so we bought the ground [floor] and the basement back in 2008, just when the world changed, and just locked it away and thought, 'Let’s see the way the world ends up'.
“We came out the other side and it was my business partner Tony who was inspirational and said, 'Why don’t we do something different for Glasgow, why don’t we bring the Anchor Line [building] back to life again, all its history, and turn it back into the building that it was?'
“It had been lying there neglected and wasting away.”
Mr Gizzi said: “We met up with Guy and instantly got on as individuals, there was an instant rapport there."
Mr Nixon said the aparthotel, as well as its core corporate customer base, is also taking more leisure stays.
In the Native Glasgow, room prices will range from £90 to £150.
Mr Nixon declared that it was a "rare opportunity to re-imagine a piece of Glasgow’s shipping heritage as a uniquely special space for the city’s visitors to stay".
He added: "We have worked in close partnership with [the] building owners to mirror the design ethos of the existing Anchor Line and Atlantic restaurants and recreate the opulence of a 1920s ocean liner."
Mr Nixon said: “As with these projects, it’s difficult
always to predict exactly when the handover will happen but I think Q4 is a safe bet and that works very well for us.
"We’ve already recruited the general manager who is based in Glasgow.
“The only other thing for us is that we are keen to find another building in Glasgow and desperately keen to try and establish a presence in Edinburgh.
“I’m up there on a regular basis.”
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