Hampton by Hilton to open in London Docklands

Topland provided a £20m finance facility to Marick for the £35m hotel, which is being developed as part of a new leisure quarter of three hotels between London’s Excel and City Airport. It will sit between a 131-bed Travelodge and a four-star hotel that is still under construction.

“The fundamentals of this deal were particularly sound. Marick is a very experienced real estate player and this location makes great sense,” said Topland Structured Finance manager Edward Matthews.

“In addition to being able to transact quickly, Topland's hotel sector expertise means that for hotel development finance we provide a particularly compelling offer.”

Hotel funding​

Topland, which has been aggressively expanding its hotel portfolio in the UK, recently moved into hotel development funding and has pledged to provide £200m to the sector.

“Topland now has a portfolio of 30 directly-owned hotels and we continue to see value in this sector and have ambitious expansion plans,” said Topland’s executive chairman Sol Zakay.

“In addition, as a lending business we recognised the potential in the sector and the funding gap that exists, with banks still showing very little appetite for hotel development funding. As you would expect Topland has capitalised on the opportunities which this presents.”

Topland has ambitions to build a £1bn hotel business in the UK,​​ and in January the group appointed Lionel Benjanmin as its new director of hotels​​ to drive growth in the sector.

Recent acquisitions by the group include the Menzies Hotels portfolio​​ in late 2013 and the Hallmark Hotels portfolio​​ in July 2014.