InterContinental Hotels Group is in discussions for a second London site for its luxury brand InterContinental, Caterer has learnt.
The group is believed to be in negotiations for a site in St James, which was originally Westminster Hospital.
A planning application has been made for the conversion of the Queen Anne Chambers building into a five-star, 300-bedroom hotel, with associated conference facilities.
In its preliminary annual report for 2006, InterContinental Hotels Group announced it was aggressively looking to strengthen existing positions in "high demand city centres" and admitted a desire for a secondary site in London.
InterContinental Hotels Group's only existing InterContinental hotel in London, on Park Lane, was reopened in November last year after a £90m refurbishment programme.
The strategy is in line with the group's ambition of adding 50,000-60,000 rooms to its stock by the end of 2008.
A spokesman for InterContinental Hotels Group declined to comment, while Dexter Moren Architects, which has submitted the planning application, would only confirm that there "is interest from several hotel groups".
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