Property firm Dominvs in £30m Aberdeen hotel plan

AN INVESTMENT company set up by Euro Car Parts founder Sukhpal Singh Ahluwalia yesterday unveiled £30 million plans to build two hotels in Aberdeen and revealed it is also in talks to buy a site in Edinburgh.

Marco Pierre White has boosted Dumfries hotels performance. Picture: Robert Perry

London-based Dominvs said its hospitality arm would build a 112-bedroom three-star hotel and a 139-room four-star facility next to Aberdeen airport.

Both sites in Aberdeen are due to open in early 2016 and are expected to create 170 jobs. Dominvs is also in talks to open a site in Edinburgh.

The company bought the Hotelier Group in April along with its three outlets in Darlington, Dumfries and Sheffield, all of which trade under the “Aston Hotel” brand.

Last month, celebrity chef Marco Pierre White opened his first restaurant north of Border at the Aston Hotel in Dumfries, following a £400,000 redevelopment of the site.

Preet Ahluwalia, director of Dominvs Hospitality, said: “The acquisition and development of the site in Aberdeen is part of our plan to open strategically located branded hotels in key UK cities. Aberdeen was high on our priority list and the location and size of this site is ideal.

“We are in negotiations to secure a site in Edinburgh in 2014 and our very first purchase in Scotland – the Aston Hotel in Dumfries, which we took over earlier this year – is going from strength to strength, especially with the recent launch of Marco Pierre White’s first Scottish restaurant within the hotel.

“There are fantastic hospitality opportunities in Scotland for a company that does its homework and invests carefully – we hope to capitalise on that and continue to expand in Scotland in the coming years.”

Earlier this month, Dominvs Group announced that it had assembled a property portfolio worth £75m during its first 12 months of operations.

The company plans to invest up to £50m in property deals over the coming 12 months. Commercial properties already in the portfolio includes sites at Ashton-under-Lyne, Banbury, Blackburn, Hertfordshire, Newport Pagnell, Reading, Wembley and Wokingham.

Residential properties owned by the group include buildings in London’s Belgravia, Kensington and Regent’s Park areas.

News of the Aberdeen deal came as EasyHotel, the budget accommodation brand owned by EasyJet founder Sir Stelios Haji-Ioannou, snapped up a site in Glasgow for £2.3m.

The 125-room hotel on Glasgow’s Hill Street was previously owned by an EasyHotel franchisee, but the firm is now directly investing in the city.

EasyHotel owns an hotel on London’s Old Street and is building one at Croydon. The remaining 19 sites – including its Edinburgh branch – are franchises.