Redefine BDL to manage new Mercure hotel in Wales

Redefine BDL Hotels partnered with Cardiff-based property developer Garrison Barclay Estates to open a Mercure Hotel at the Chartist Tower in Newport, Wales, according to a report from WalesOnline. 

Redefine BDL will operate the 163-room hotel under a 10-year franchise agreement. The hotel project is part of a mixed-use development proposed by Garrison Barclay Estates. The developer applied for planning approval to the Newport Council to redevelop the Chartist Tower as part of a £12-million investment. The hotel and restaurant are slated to open in summer 2019.
 

The new Mercure will share the 15-story tower, which will be designed by architect Ann-Marie Smale of Powell Dobson, with four other hotels on 11 floors of the building, office space, retail space on the ground floor and a restaurant on the top floor. The retail space is set to include a post office and a food store. Garrison Barclay Estates has already listed the office and retail space to rent although they will be ready for use in January 2019. One company will occupy the building's office space, which has not yet been disclosed. The bottom floor will also have a meeting and event room accommodating 400 people. 

Garrison Barclay Estates already received funding for the new development from commercial real estate group Coutts.

"Our application of retail, office and hotel will generate over 350 jobs for the city center of Newport. We are very proud of the team efforts to put all of this together from design and planning of this unique opportunity within five months of acquisition. Normally, this would have been at least 18 months of planning works," Andrew Innes, financial controller at Garrison Barclay Estates, told WalesOnline. 

The new hotel will join the AccorHotels Group brand's two addition Mercure properties in Wales: The Mercure Cardiff Holland House-Hotel & Spa and the Mercure Swansea Hotel.