UK: Stow-Away has lined up senior and mezzanine finance from high-net-worth individuals for its planned conversion of Central Hall in Birmingham city centre.
Stow-Away is a collaboration between Ciel Capital and Charlie Fulford’s Stow Projects, with BridgeStreet Global Hospitality as the operating partner. It plans to build a 135-bed hotel and a 51-bed Stow-Away aparthotel at Birmingham’s former Central Hall building.
The project, which will also feature restaurants, bars and retail on the ground floor, has a GDV of around £40 million. Work is expected to start on site next year once planning permission has been secured.
Dorothée Dembiermont, a partner at Voltaire Financial, which advised on the financing, said: “Stow-Away is strategically positioned to plug the significant gap in the market between high-end offerings and low-quality product. Due to the early stage of the brand, conventional lending wasn’t a sufficiently flexible option; we needed partners with a vision.”
Funding from private sources has also been secured for the first Stow-Away project which will open in October – a 20-bed aparthotel built from shipping containers with a wine bar and restaurant on the ground floor on Lower Marsh in London’s Waterloo.
Ciel Capital chief executive Vedrana Riley said the partners are pursuing opportunities in Manchester, Glasgow and Dublin, and hope to build a portfolio of 10 assets over the next three years.</p
