Two eyesore former hotel buildings in front of Temple Meads station could finally be bought by the city council and transformed in a multi-million pound deal.
Bristol City Council chiefs are set to give their approval next week to a plan for the council to buy or compulsory purchase both the George and Railway Hotel building and the Grosvenor Hotel building, which are both derelict buildings across the road from the train station. Both buildings have been empty and decaying for at least 20 years, and have been the subject of years of debate and discussion over what should happen to them.
Now, in a proposal that looks set to be rubber-stamped by the council’s cabinet next week, the city council is expected to spend around £4 million on a deal to sort out the George and Railway Hotel building, as well as compulsory purchase the Grosvenor Hotel next door. The deal will see the council then sell the old George and Railway Hotel to a development company, get them to restore and redevelop it into small and medium-sized offices, and then lease it back to the council, which will then manage the building, leasing the individual offices out to a range of companies.
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The plan is less clear for the Grosvenor Hotel, which has been the subject of an international property developer scandal, which saw investors fleeced of up to £9 million, a series of court cases and a property developer on the run abroad and wanted by the courts in London.
The cabinet report recommends that council chiefs give approval to the idea of buying the former Grosvenor Hotel too, in principle. Again, if agreement can’t be made, the council will issue a compulsory purchase order for that building too.
The two buildings once sat next to the Temple Circus gyratory roundabout, but a huge roadworks and road alignment project at the end of the 2010s saw the creation of a pedestrian area between the two buildings and the council’s own offices at 100 Temple Street.
The report to the cabinet outlines that taking over and restoring the two historic buildings were key elements to the regeneration of the Temple Meads area. The council has made many big announcements about its plans for the two buildings before - including in 2018 when they unveiled artists’ impressions of what the area might look like.
But nothing tangible has happened since, with the project mired in red tape, funding issues and challenges over who owns the buildings and thrashing out deals with them. But the council said that once they can be restored, the whole area can ‘be developed to create a new high quality area of public realm called Temple Square Plaza’.
The council is also seeking to buy Station Approach, the land in front of the main entrance to Temple Meads Station. The deal to buy, sell and then lease back the George and Railway Hotel is described in the report to cabinet, which states that the development of the George building and area around it would form the first phase of development, with the Grosvenor Hotel building knocked down and a new building constructed there.
“The building will deliver new office accommodation within the Enterprise Zone for small and medium sized businesses. This will support growth in key sectors, help drive business rates growth and deliver jobs within the Enterprise Zone in order to meet key council commitments,” the report said.
It confirmed that once the George and Railway building, which sits nearer Temple Meads and has been clad in scaffolding for years, is bought by the council, it will be sold to development firm Skanska/Railpen. “Skanska/Railpen will provide funding for the development of the George and Railway site and use their funding and proven expertise to deliver the development project,” the council report proposes.
“Bristol City Council will lease the property from Skanska/Railpen on a long term basis to secure the facility for the city. The Council will then arrange for the space to be leased for a commercial rent.
“It is intended that land between 100 Temple Street, George and Railway and Temple Gate 2, will be developed to create a new high quality area of public realm called Temple Square Plaza,” it added.
As for the Grosvenor Hotel, its future is less certain - but the cabinet meeting next week could give the go-ahead to give council officers the power to order its compulsory purchase too. From 2017 to 2020, it was the subject of a huge scandal, where a businessman proposed to turn it into student flats, and sold them to investors, raking in millions of pounds, despite the fact he didn't own the building or have planning permission.
He spent the money on a lavish lifestyle, as well as claiming to have used it to buy his own family heirloom jewellery, and went on the run from a 21-month prison sentence for lying to a bankruptcy court, and was believed to be in either India or Dubai.
But, for Bristol City Council, that saga is largely irrelevant - they are still tied up in negotiations with the people who do actually own the Grosvenor Hotel, and the council wants to buy it from them and incorporate it into the second phase of the regeneration of this area.
But the council has been slow to act on the Grosvenor Hotel amid what it called 'complex legal issues'. In January 2020, the council told Bristol Live it was working on a Compulsory Purchase Order to buy the building. In January 2021, it said it was in the 'final preparations' for that CPO, but 15 months later, the council has still not bought that building.
The council did say last year, however, that they would knock it down when they do eventually buy it, to make way for a development that includes the George and Railway Hotel building next door.
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