By Ian McConnell
The City of Edinburgh Council has agreed a 25-year lease with M&G and the investment giant’s property development partner, Qmile Group, for a 349-bedroom Hyatt Centric hotel at Haymarket in Edinburgh.
M&G said the seven-storey hotel would be the first Hyatt Centric in Scotland. It noted Hyatt Centric is the hotel group’s “range of modern boutique hotels which are located in the heart of some of the world’s most-visited cities”.
The new hotel will be managed and operated by the city council-owned Edinburgh International Conference Centre (EICC) under a franchise agreement with Hyatt Hotels Corporation. The hotel is expected to create around 200 jobs and is scheduled to open in 2025, with M&G noting construction is due to start “imminently”.
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The 200,000 sq ft building will, in addition to the Hyatt Centric, also be home to a hotel school and training academy. This will “create training and employment opportunities for workers in the city’s leisure and tourism industry”, M&G said.
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EICC chief executive Marshall Dallas said: “The Haymarket Edinburgh development...aligns with our mission to create an environment which inspires ideas that change the world. Hyatt Centric Edinburgh Haymarket will be a cornerstone for attracting local and international travellers and notable luminaries to our venue each year. We...look forward to the meaningful opportunities this property will bring to the city of Edinburgh.”
Aaron Pope, director of asset management at M&G Real Estate, said: “The Haymarket area...provided us with an opportunity to work with Qmile to transform this underused area of the city into a high-quality destination for those who visit, [and] live and work in, Edinburgh. To have fully pre-let the hotel and office space at this relatively early stage demonstrates not only the attractiveness of the development, but also the strength of the Edinburgh real estate market, which continues to draw global office occupiers.”
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