Turnstone Estates and its partners celebrated the topping out of the new Travelodge hotel at its Colchester Northern Gateway Leisure Park development today (16 November).
Representatives from Travelodge and the main contractor HG Construction, met with those from Colchester Amphora Trading, Colchester Borough Council, Turnstone Estates and Canada Life to mark the milestone.
When finished and open in July next year, the 90-bedroom hotel will complement the leisure and food and beverage offer at the £65 million Leisure Park.
Chris Goldsmith, Managing Director of Turnstone Estates said: “Today represents an important milestone for this project and all those involved. The new Travelodge will be the first element of our exciting Leisure Park to open its doors which I am pleased to say is well on schedule.”
Tony O’Brien, UK Development Director of Travelodge commented: “This will be a fabulous new Travelodge hotel, with fantastic access from the A12 and into the town centre. There are already excellent leisure amenities on the doorstep, including Colchester United FC’s JobServe Community Stadium and the recently-opened Colchester Sports Park. The new Northern Gateway Leisure Park, also being developed by Turnstone Estates, will add a new 12-screen cinema, 20-lane bowling alley, a climbing centre, indoor golf and numerous great-quality restaurants. We can’t wait to open next year and provide visitors to the area with a great place to stay and enjoy all of the new facilities and the fantastic local attractions that the city offers.”
The hotel will be developed to Travelodge’s new budget luxe premium look and feel design. This is the group’s most radical transformation to date and this new format has been created on the success of the group’s budget chic hotel format, TravelodgePLUS, with feedback from the company’s largest consumer study – which surveyed around 5,000 UK business and leisure travellers to find the psychographics of the modern budget traveller. Key findings revealed that modern travellers crave style, choice and little homely touches to make it easier to work, rest and relax both inside and outside of the room.
In response to this consumer insight, the Travelodge interiors team have remodelled their core product with a new budget luxe design that includes all the low cost efficiencies you would expect from Travelodge but with the added benefit of thoughtful, stylish design and homely touches throughout its interiors.
Cllr David King, Leader of Colchester Borough Council, said: “Our congratulations to all the partners on reaching this significant milestone. It is great to see such progress ‘on the ground’, the results of significant investment into Colchester’s Northern Gateway which will provide new jobs, places to enjoy, and much needed commercial income to help support council services into the long term. All further evidence of the attraction to the private and public sectors of Colchester, a city to be, as a great place to invest, visit, live and work.”
The 200,000 sq ft leisure development is located within Colchester’s Northern Gateway, south of junction 28 of the A12. The event marks a significant moment for this ambitious project which already boasts an impressive line-up of occupiers committed to the scheme including Cineworld, Hollywood Bowl, Puttstars, Jump Street, Kervan Kitchen, Greggs, Wendy’s and Fastned.
Conor Rice, Managing Director, HG Construction added: “It is a pleasure to gather together and mark the topping out of the Travelodge with Turnstone Estates. Reaching this stage on schedule is a result of an exceptional and dedicated project team. We look forward to continuing to work collaboratively with our partners and seeing this exciting scheme progress further over the coming months.”
The Turnstone scheme for the Northern Gateway Leisure Park forms part of a wider development delivered by Colchester Borough Council and its Colchester Amphora companies that also includes the recently opened Colchester Sports Park and the forthcoming 350 new homes, healthcare campus and 45,100 sqm of commercial floorspace. The whole development will benefit from an integral digital network providing ultra-fast broadband to local homes and businesses.
The professional team comprises Agents: Wareing and Partners, Whybrow. Architects-CMP, Civil and Structural Engineers – Conisbee, MEP consultant – Silcock Dawson, Acoustic – Sharps Redmore, Landscape design – PLACE, Employers Agent and Quantity Surveyor – Stace.
For further information visit: northerngatewaycolchester.co.uk