Plymouth, England department store to convert into Premier Inn

Premier Inn's newest location in the center of Plymouth, England, has broken ground and will be open at the end of 2018. According to devonlive.com, London-based developer Thames Bank Property is converting the former Derry's department store into a 110-room hotel, which Premier Inn will lease for 25 years. 

Thames Bank has applied for a planning permit to install new signage for Premier Inn on the 1950s building, the Plymouth Herald reported. It exchanged contracts for the 224,536 square-foot site last year. The purchase was completed in December. The development received full planning permission in August 2016 and involves remodeling, extending and refurbishing the building. Demolition has begun on part of the building, but the triple-sided retail frontage will be retained and refurbished.
 

While the upper floor of the building will be a hotel, Homes for Students has signed a long-term agreement to operate a 500-room student-housing block on the ground floor. The new dorms will be open in time for the start of the 2018-2019 academic year. 75,000 square feet of shops and restaurants, possibly including a KFC, will also open on the ground floor next to existing tenants, which include Argos and stationary chain Ryman.

The building opened in 1894 as the Co-operative Central Premises. It was almost completely demolished on the first night of the Plymouth Blitz in 1941. In 1953, the store reopened and was renamed the Co-operative House in 1958. A food hall was added to the building a year later. The store was rebranded Derry's Department Store in September 1988 after its 2-year major overhaul worth about $10.13 million. Derry’s was then sold to Liverpool-based Vergo Retail in 2009. The store closed 12 years later.