A consortium of English investors has acquired the Green Dragon Hotel in Herefordshire, England, with plans to rebrand the property under the Bespoke Hotels chain.
The investors will restore the Grade II-listed building through a long-term extensive refurbishment and business development program. The 83-room Green Dragon Hotel will retain many of its original interior and external features. It will remain open during this phased program, which will begin in the winter.
Julian Vaughan and Christian Dangerfield from Blue Sky Corporate Finance are leading the hotel project. Restaurant, hospitality and food entrepreneur Luke Johnson—the owner of the Penyard House Hotel near Ross-on-Wye, England—is investing in the project as well.
This latest addition to the portfolio follows Bespoke Hotels' plans to open a 191-room hotel in spring 2020 in Manchester, UK. The Hotel Brooklyn, which is a Brooklyn, New York-themed hotel, is currently under construction.
Squid Inc. is designing the guestrooms and interiors of the new hotel while Marshall CDP is leading the construction. Both companies partnered with Bespoke Hotels to develop Manchester's Hotel Gotham, which opened in 2015. English architect Edwin Lutyens designed the former bank building in 1935 before it was converted into a 60-room hotel three years ago.
A hotel project at the former Coventry Telegraph offices in Coventry, England joined Bespoke Hotels' pipeline in July. Construction on Bespoke Hotels’ first property in Coventry will begin later this year and develop 100 guestrooms, which are pending planning approval from the Coventry City Council.
The new properties will expand Bespoke Hotels’ presence in the UK. The group currently has a portfolio of 85 hotels across the market. Three of these—the Hallmark Inn, the Hotel Gotham and the Townhouse Hotel—operate in Manchester.