Premier Inn has unveiled plans to build a 100-bed hotel on the site of a care home in St Ives, Cornwall.
The national chain has proposed the £10m hotel could be built on the current site of the Trewidden Care Home, Trewidden Road next to Trenwith Car Park.
If approved, parent company Whitbread said the hotel could create 30 full-time jobs on opening, with guests bringing in an estimated £2.5 m per year to the local economy – £1.2m of which the company calculates could be spent outside the seaside town’s peak tourism season.
Whitbread said the operator of the Trewidden Care Home, Cornwallis Care Services, has informed the families of the home’s current 39 residents about the plans to redevelop.
If the hotel is given the green light, the company added the residents - who will remain on the site during the planning process - would be offered the opportunity to be transferred to a new home in Penzance, which is due to be finished this autumn.
An application for the proposed hotel is anticipated to be submitted to Cornwall Council before Christmas.
Planning permission for a 39-bedroom hotel on the site has already been granted in 2016, but Premier Inn’s new proposals would supersede those, with the hotel potentially occupying “a large portion” of the site if built. The York Hotel previously operated there until the 1980s.
Feedback from the public on the plans will be sought at two consultations events in St Ives during October, as well as an online webinar.
Whitbread said the hotel would be designed to a high environmental standard, with features that reference the town's existing architecture. One of the proposals is for the building to be clad with copper, as a nod to the mine at Wheal Trenwith which operated close by.
Louise Woodruff, property acquisitions manager at Whitbread, said: “This Premier Inn hotel would provide an affordable destination for leisure and business travellers in St Ives throughout the year.
“We would be bringing a different style of accommodation to the town than is currently available and create permanent employment with the UK’s leading hotel business. As many of our guests go out to eat and drink locally when staying with us, the proposed hotel would also make a significant contribution to the local economy year-round.”
Whitbread currently operates four Premier Inn hotels in west Cornwall at Camborne, Hayle Helston and Penzance.
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