Whitbread has signed an agreement for lease on a 110-room Premier Inn in Lancaster city centre, its second hotel in the city, as rising visitor numbers across Lancashire and Cumbria drive demand in north-west England.
The hotel will be built by Maple Grove Developments, the commercial development arm of Lancashire-based Eric Wright Group, on a derelict site on Edward Street in the Canal Quarter, an area Lancaster City Council has earmarked for long-term regeneration. It is subject to planning permission, and Maple Grove said it would submit its application shortly.
Whitbread, which runs 842 Premier Inn hotels across the UK and Ireland, said it had long had a requirement for a city-centre hotel in Lancaster. It already operates an 81-room Premier Inn on Caton Road on the edge of the city.
“We have long targeted the city centre as a priority location, and this new Premier Inn will deliver attractive financial returns and meet clear demand for high-quality, affordable accommodation,” said Jill Anderson, Acquisition Manager at Whitbread.
Based on average Premier Inn occupancy, Whitbread expects around 45,000 guests a year once the hotel matures. The company’s own 2024 research put average external guest spending at £143 per bedroom per night, with more than half spent in the area around the hotel.
The hotel will sit at the corner of Moor Lane and Edward Street, with its entrance and ground-floor restaurant facing a new public space. Light and dark brick, stone tiles and a slate roof are proposed to reflect the area’s industrial past. If approved, construction is expected to take 18 months, and Whitbread expects to create around 30 permanent jobs.
“Signing the agreement for lease with Whitbread brings certainty to the change we are seeking to deliver at the Canal Quarter, ultimately transforming a collection of derelict industrial buildings into a high-quality hotel,” said James Scott, Managing Director of Maple Grove Developments.
Councillor Peter Jackson, cabinet member for Lancaster regeneration and the local economy, said the proposal represented “a huge vote of confidence in Lancaster” and would help deliver the Canal Quarter Masterplan’s vision for “a vibrant destination where people can live, work, visit and spend time”.
The Lancaster scheme is part of a wider Whitbread push in north-west England, after the company won planning permission for a Premier Inn in Carlisle city centre earlier this year. The region’s hospitality trade will gather in February for the 50th Lakes Hospitality Trade Show in Cumbria.
