Accor Ibis hotel features in West 12 shopping centre refurbishment
The hotel will open in a former office block as part of the revamp which will also see a new façade for the shopping centre owned by Land Securities and a refurbishment of the shops on the Shepherd’s Bush Green site.
Thomas Dubaere, managing director for Accor UK & Ireland said the opening would be a key moment for the Ibis brand.
“We are very pleased to be part of this project and working alongside Land Securities to realise a brand new Ibis hotel. Ibis is the keystone of our economy portfolio and stands for modernity and innovation which is evident throughout this whole development,” he said.
“2012 will be a busy and exciting year for Accor with the roll out of our new Ibis brand and a strong development pipeline, and this hotel plays an integral part of both. It is an important opening in an important year,” he added.
Mega-brand
The hotel will open in the summer and will be the first UK opening for the Ibis brand since the France-based company announced it was to consolidate its three economy brands – Ibis, Etap and All Seasons – under one name.
The so-called ‘mega-brand’ contains three names encompassing the entire Accor economy offering - Ibis, Ibis Styles (previously All Seasons) and Ibis Budget (previously Etap).
Accor has a portfolio of 185 hotels and more than 24,000 rooms in the UK and Ireland alone. It also operates the Sofitel, MGallery, Novotel and Mercure brands.
Outside the UK, the operator is present in 90 countries and owns more than 4,400 hotels and 530,000 rooms.
West12
West12 shopping and leisure centre is currently a 291,900sq.ft site and also boasts 38 retail and seven leisure units, as well as a cinema and leisure centre.
Andrew Rawlings, the portfolio manager for West12 at the commercial property company Land Securities, said having Accor involved was a major part of the refurbishment plans for the centre as a whole.
“This major revamp is an exciting time for West12 as it continues to establish its attractive proposition as a venue in its own right. We’re clearly seeing that active asset management is paying dividend. We’ve worked closely with Accor, and new and existing retailers, which are also investing in the transformation with brand new fit-outs,” he said.
“The shopping and leisure centre is going from strength to strength as we’re already seeing a positive impact on shopper numbers which also happened following the opening of Westfield London,” he added.
