Maven announces £13.75m Hotel Indigo Development in Cardiff

Maven has successfully completed a £13.75m transaction for the purchase of an empty 6,000 sq m office building in city-centre Cardiff for conversion into a 100-bedroom Hotel Indigo with rooftop Marco Pierre White Steakhouse Bar & Grill.

Hotel Indigo is the boutique brand of InterContinental Hotels Group, one of the largest hotel companies in the world, with 60 Hotel Indigos worldwide including the successful Glasgow property which is already part of Maven’s portfolio. The hotel will be ideally located in close proximity to Cardiff’s central business district, its major attractions such as Cardiff Castle and the Millennium Stadium and principal transport links.

The Welsh Government has committed to increasing Cardiff’s profile as an international business centre, promoting investment into the business infrastructure, having already undertaken a number of successful regeneration projects including Cardiff Bay. Cardiff is now recognised as a key UK corporate, sporting and leisure destination, in 2014 it enjoyed the largest growth in room revenues of any major UK market apart from Glasgow and the city is expected to continue to see increased demand for accommodation.

Funding for the project included a £5.75m equity raise from Maven’s UK-wide syndicate of investors and introducers. It is expected that investors will benefit from Business Premises Renovation Allowance (BPRA), which is intended to stimulate investment in qualifying areas across the UK, including: Glasgow, Liverpool, Newcastle and Birmingham in addition to Cardiff, by providing tax allowances for the costs of refurbishing empty commercial properties. As well as bringing empty buildings back into use, these developments help to stimulate economic regeneration and create employment.

Maven is one of few managers able to source, structure and fund these complex transactions. Its specialist property investment team has now led seven transactions in the last 24 months, with an aggregate transaction value of over £50 million. Those include two hotel developments: a Travelodge hotel in Llandudno and the ibis Styles in Glasgow’s Merchant City, and three student accommodation developments, another growing property sector where Maven’s team has rapidly established a strong track record.

Ramsay Duff, Investment Director at Maven, who led the deal and has previously secured funding for several other hotel development projects, said “We are delighted to have been able to identify, structure and complete another attractive hotel investment for our investors. These are complex projects but they can offer a compelling opportunity to invest in high quality developments. This is a really exciting development, in one of the fastest growing hotel markets in the UK, well located in the vibrant city centre of Cardiff and able to take advantage of the considerable tourism and leisure trade and growing commercial activity of the Welsh capital. Our UK property team will continue to use innovative ideas to structure compelling new investment opportunities for our investors”.