As you may have already read in the press today, I have taken the decision to sell two of our landmark hotels, 30 James Street and The Shankly Hotel.
I get up every morning to resurrect old buildings that don’t make economic sense. That’s what I do. The next conundrum after that is not only to resurrect them, you need to make sure they’re commercial.
We’ve done that with James Street. It was derelict for 20 plus years, nobody could make economic sense out of it, and we’ve done that. And we’ve made it into a tourist destination in its own right. It now pays rates, it’s now creating jobs.
So I think my job is done with that building. The Shankly Hotel is a bit different. The Shankly Hotel is a hotel that’s very close to me in a lot of ways
But we’ve now got something like eight hotels in total in Liverpool. And we have a certain pressure on us to fill those hotels. We run at around 96% (occupancy) now. It’s really important to us that we keep that level up.
It’s the right time to sell because it’s probably the highest turnover hotel in the city, next to maybe the Hilton in Liverpool One. I think we’ve done our job there…
Please read the full press release below:
The Signature Living Group announced today (Friday 03 May 2019) that the landmark 30 James Street and Shankly hotels in Liverpool are up for sale.
The announcement to sell the highly profitable hotels, which both include popular restaurants and conference facilities, follow Signature Living’s decision to expand into new locations and invest heavily in forthcoming hotel and residential developments including; Dixie Dean Hotel (Liverpool), Alma De Cuba expansion (Liverpool), Cavern Walks Hotel (Liverpool), Kingsway House (Liverpool), RainHill Hall (St Helens), George Best Hotel (Belfast), Waring Hotel (Belfast), Liverpool Road (Manchester), Victoria Mill (Manchester), Shankly Hotel (Preston) and the final phase of the Coal Exchange development (Cardiff).
The Signature Living Group will also be launching its first cruise ship enterprise in Spain. Signature Living opened the Titanic-themed 30 James Street hotel in 2014. The building is the former headquarters of the White Star Line.
The 63 bedroom hotel includes a spa, conference and events hall and is home to ‘Carpathia’ restaurant. Its occupancy rates are amongst the highest in Liverpool and average at 98%. The property is valued at £17 million pounds.
Signature Living announced last week (26 April 2019) that it had bought out all original investors in the hotel paying a total of over £7.9 million.
In 2015 Signature Living opened the Shankly Hotel in collaboration with the surviving family of the late football manager Bill Shankly. The 125-bedroom Victoria Street hotel has won multiple awards including Hotel of the Year at the Liverpool City Region Tourism Awards in 2016. The hotel includes ‘The Bastion’ restaurant and two major conference and event spaces. Memorabilia from Bill Shankly’s glorious reign as manager of Liverpool Football Club is featured throughout the hotel, with it split between standard Shankly rooms, to a mix flamboyance based on the Signature Living brand, which offers an alternative to a normal hotel stay. The Shankly is valued at £40 million pounds.
The Shankly Hotel will also be featured in a forthcoming BBC TV series.
Signature Living chairman Lawrence Kenwright said:
“Signature Living have developed and operated two of Liverpool’s most successful hotels ever with 30 James Street and Shankly. Their numerous awards and phenomenal occupancy rates are testament to that. Both hotels are now famous all over the world.
