Expanding Ipswich-based hotel chain Elizabeth Hotels has bought three properties costing more than £10m in total over the past month and is looking at four other sites.
The latest acquisition, completed today, was of the 53-bedroom North Euston Hotel in Fleetwood, Lancashire, for about £3m.
It is the first hotel in the county for Elizabeth, which has mainly been based in East Anglia but is now expanding northwards and westwards.
The two other hotels bought by Elizabeth in the past month were both former Corus Hotels properties in East Anglia.
The 76-bedroom County Copdock Hotel in Ipswich was bought on 25 May for £4.7m and has been renamed the Hotel Elizabeth Copdock.
The 71-bedroom Dukes Head Hotel in Kings Lynn was bought on 1 June for £3m and renamed the Hotel Elizabeth Dukes Head.
Two months earlier, the group bought Arties Mill and Lodge at Brigg in north Lincolnshire, a former mill converted into a restaurant, bar and 30-bedroom hotel, with development potential for a further 30 bedrooms.
Elizabeth has set aside £2m for initial refurbishment of the hotels.
The new sites bring the group’s portfolio up to 17 hotels, with 775 bedrooms, a total of 1,000 employees and annual turnover of £22m, said managing director Neil Forbes.
Further acquisitions are in the pipeline and the medium-term strategy is to grow to 24 hotels, he added.
by Sarah Kaikini and Nic Paton
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