Lowry opening first of many

The opening in Manchester this week of RF Hotel's five-star Lowry Hotel heralds the start of the biggest hotel expansion the city has seen.

The growth is partly fuelled by the creation of the city's £23m international convention centre, as well as its hosting of the Commonwealth Games next year and a general upturn in both business and tourism in the North-west.

Bass is refurbishing the Midland Crowne Plaza and, while no announcements have been made, it is believed the hotel will be renamed an Inter-Continental and seek a five-star rating.

Hilton has started a £45m redevelopment of a former warehouse in the city centre, intended to become a four-star, 250-bedroom hotel, which Hilton managing director Anthony Harris says will open next year for the Commonwealth Games.

Conversion into a 250-bedroom Radisson Edwardian hotel at four-star-plus standard is about to begin in the former Manchester Free Trade Hall building, within walking distance of the new conversion centre and the G-Mex exhibition centre.

Central Apartments, the hotel operation of London property developer Crown Dilmun, is spending £4m on converting the closed Dominion Hotel on the edge of Manchester's Chinatown.