Whitbread has acquired the freehold interest in New London House in the City of London in order to convert the site into a hotel-led, mixed-use development.

The UK’s leading hospitality group acquired the 8,335 m² multi-use building for £56.5 million from clients of Orchard Street Investment Management. It will seek planning consent from the City of London Corporation to repurpose and extend New London House.

Currently an office, retail, and restaurant building, the acquisition of the site is part of Whitbread’s strategy of targeting office spaces that no longer meet the requirements of clients and owners and to convert them into hotels.

New London House was developed in the 1970s and is located beside Fenchurch Street station.

Whitbread currently has two other office-to-hotel conversions under construction in the City of London, both of which will become hub by Premier Inn properties.

The City of London’s appeal as a business and leisure destination continues to underwrite our investments in new hotel developments in the Square Mile. New London House presents an excellent opportunity to expand our network in the City and deliver our high-quality, great value hotel bedrooms in a location with the transport connections and proximity to business and leisure demand drivers that our customers expect.

Jonathan Langdon, Senior Acquisition Manager at Whitbread

We are seeing a structural shift in the London office market presenting opportunities to acquire office buildings that are no longer fit for occupier and investor purposes and to reposition and refurbish them into successful hotels. Our strong balance sheet, plentiful liquidity, and ability to buy and develop freehold property, which is rare in our sector, leaves Whitbread very well-placed to take advantage of this structural shift. We have a strong track record of using innovative design and development to grow our hotel network in high value locations like Central London and in accordance with Whitbread’s commitments to becoming a net zero business by 2050.

Mark Anderson, Managing Director for Property and International at Whitbread