Hard Rock seeks London hotel
Hard Rock Hotels & Casinos is on the look out for a central London site and may consider a pure condo hotel development.
Denise Grant, development director Europe, said that the group had been frustrated twice on deals in London on mixed-use developments, because they had included a mandatory element of social housing.
"Maybe we would consider a pure condo hotel concept as the way forward in London," she added.
"We would be able to market this easily to customers in the USA as they would love to have a condo in London and they are comfortable with the concept."
Grant conceded her biggest challenges were educating people about the Hard Rock hotel brand. "From our point of view opening our first hotel in Europe in Madrid can't happen quickly enough.
"The second challenge is to get investors to understand that the brand will work in Europe," she added.
The group plans to have 20 to 25 hotels in its portfolio by 2010 and to grow to 75 properties in the long term.