Whitbread to convert Amstrad HQ into hotel

Hotel group Premier Inn has applied for planning permission to turn the headquarters of technology company Amstrad into a hotel.

The budget hotel chain has bought entrepreneur Sir Alan Sugar’s 10-storey Brentwood office building with the intention of turning it into a 120-bedroom hotel.

“The deal we’ve struck with Amsprop, Alan Sugar’s development company and owner of the premises, means that we will have a strategically-located hotel opposite Brentwood train station and just 10 minutes from Stratford and the Olympic site,” said Mark Anderson, property director for Whitbread Hotels and Restaurants.

The plans to develop the office building in Essex fall in line with Whitbread’s aims to expand the chain across the capital and include naming the 8th floor – home to Sugar’s infamous boardroom – the Boardroom Floor.

Anderson said empty office blocks were being considered for development as the hotel group looked to have a total of 55,000 rooms in its portfolio in the next five years.

“Our continuing expansion in London will make us the largest hotel provider in the capital for 2012 and nearby sites such as Brentwood House will add to the offer,” he said.

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