226-BED HOTEL TO TOWER OVER CITY
Date : 21.09.07
Derby's Jurys Inn hotel will have 226 bedrooms and be one of Derby's tallest buildings.
Plans for the three-star, £25m, nine-storey development on the former Bridgegate BMW site have been submitted to the city council.
It will also include a basement casino, 65-space underground car park, bar and restaurant and 89 apartments, expected to be for private residents.
Jurys Inns Ltd first announced it wanted a hotel in Derby in January last year and it is hoping now it will be up and running by early 2009.
A city council spokesman said: "We now need to check that the application is complete and then it will come up for consideration before the planning committee within 13 weeks.
"It could be heard as soon as November 8 or November 29."
The hotel will be 117ft tall. This compares with Wilderslowe Tower at Derbyshire Royal Infirmary in London Road, which is 150ft, and the 130ft Westfield Derby extension, which includes the cinema.
The Jurys hotel is set to be built in King Street on a site that has stood empty since being bought by Birchover Properties in 2001.
The company eventually secured planning permission to build 67 apartments there, in a four-storey and five-storey building, after a second application in October 2003.
Objectors had raised concerns over nitrogen dioxide pollution levels because the land is next to the ring road.
But Birchover Properties pulled out in 2005 and the site was put back on the market.
The city council said the previous planning history would be taken into account, along with environmental factors, including the hotel's impact on surrounding buildings, traffic levels and the flood risk.
Jurys refused to comment yesterday but previously a spokesman said that Derby had been earmarked for a new company hotel a while ago.
Similar Jurys Inns hotels have been built in other British cities, including Birmingham, Manchester and Nottingham, which opened two years ago.
David Marshall, development director of Derby Cityscape, a £1bn plan to redevelop the city centre, said the development would fit in with its masterplan.
He said: "This is fantastic news. We've been working with the company for some time, encouraging it to move forward quickly with its plans.
"The hotel is featured in our detailed masterplan and is a key feature."
Several companies have indicated an interest in developing hotels in the city.
These include a 38-bedroom four-star Finesse Hotels hotel near completion in the former police museum in St Mary's Gate.
The others are: the Ramada hotel chain, which wants a 112-bedroom hotel at Pride Park; a 165-bedroom hotel in a £20m development at Pride Park Stadium; a 200-bedroom hotel in the North Riverlights scheme planned for Exeter Street, Darwin Place; a 116-bedroom Hilton hotel at the Riverlights development; and a 50-bedroom luxury hotel in the Grade I-listed St Helen's House, also in King Street.
There are already two casinos in the city, run by Stanley Casinos in Friar Gate and Col-year Street, and it is planning another at Riverlights.
Article courtesy of The Derby Evening Telegraph