Valley Ridge Holdings has announced the appointment of industry veterans David Church and Robert B. Cook to help drive the development of a major UK staycation resort within a 284-acre site in Suffolk, England.
Church has advised on some of the UK's largest real estate and lodgingtransactions including the £1 bn central London Grange Hotel deal in 2019. While managing director and head of Real Estate and Lodging at Bank of America Merrill Lynch, he advised on the landmark £1.7 bn sale of the Broadgate office and retail complex in London. He was also managing director at HFF, the real estate financial services firm having sold his own company to them in 2017.
Cook is the CEO of TGI Fridays Group and brings decades of experience in leading roles in the leisure and hotel industries. He was previously CEO of Virgin Active UK and has driven the development of a number of prominent hotel brands in the UK and Europe. This includes as CEO of De Vere Hotels where he led the development of De Vere Village Urban Resorts (now Village Club) and CEO of the Malmaison hotel group, where he drove the development of both the Malmaison and Hotel du Vin brands.
The Valley Ridge resort, which is scheduled to open in 2023/24, will boast an extensive offering including a holiday park with a range of self-catering accommodation including eco-friendly wooden lodges, sports and retail facilities; a snow dome housing a range of winter sports facilities including one of the largest indoor ski slopes in the UK; a state-of-the-art water park, spa and cinema; a 350 key four-star hotel withconference facilities and an extensive food and beverage offering including bars, restaurants, cafes and a country club. The project’s cost is estimated to be approximately £500 mln (€560 mln).
