Park Plaza takes control of Westminster Bridge project

Euro Sea Hotels, a subsidiary of Park Plaza Hotels, has acquired the 66% stake in Marlbray Limited it doesn't already own, giving it 100% ownership of the Park Plaza Westminster Bridge hotel project in London. The total cost for the acquisition and the settlement of a fee payable by Marlbray to Irish Nationwide Building Society is about £10.27 mln (EUR 13.6 mln) in cash and the issue of 735,000 new ordinary shares in Park Plaza.

Park Plaza acquired the 66% stake in Malbray from Galliard Homes, Paul White and Alex Cope. Irish Nationwide Building Society provided early-stage financing for the project.

Park Plaza will also operate the Westminster Bridge apartment-hotel, which is expected to open in 2010 and is located at the southern end of Westminster Bridge close to the recently opened Park Plaza County Hall and Waterloo station. Park Plaza said planning permission for an additional floor will result in the hotel having 1,037 apartments when completed, making it one of London’s largest hotels. A £221 mln facility has been obtained from Bank Hapoalim that will be repaid through the pre-sale of apartments. To date, 820 of the 1,037 apartments have been pre-sold at an aggregate price payable on completion of the hotel of approximately £234 mln.

Park Plaza Hotels floated on London's AIM stock market in July 2007. It currently has 26 properties and over 4,700 rooms in its portfolio. The number of rooms is expected to rise to over 8,000 by 2010 through committed projects and territorial franchise agreements. Other projects under development include Park Plaza Marrakech and Art’otel Cologne.