Consultancy team supports BlackRock on Hilton hotel acquisition

The newly built and opened hotel comprises 178 guest bedrooms, meeting rooms, a bar and restaurant and is conveniently located opposite the terminal at Birmingham Airport. Originally developed by the Castlebridge Group, the property was purchased by BlackRock following a commercial due diligence process which was conducted by Christie & Co’s expert Hotel Consultancy team. Under BlackRock’s ownership, the hotel will retain Castlebridge as the operator under franchise with Hilton for the Hilton Garden Inn brand. 

Birmingham is the fourth most visited city in the UK for international visitors, with 2017 its busiest year on record for the airport, with 13 million passengers. The hotel will benefit from its location close to the busy airport, the NEC conference centre and also the future HS2 rail connection, which is part of the ‘UK Central Hub’ development area. 

Paul Tebbit, Portfolio Manager at Blackrock UK Property Fund, comments, “The Hilton Garden Inn, Birmingham Airport, provides all the characteristics which we were seeking in a hotel investment. The purpose built and internationally branded hotel benefits from its strategic location immediately adjacent to Birmingham International Airport which is expected to see passenger numbers grow to in excess of 27m per annum by 2030. We also expect to see the hotel benefit from the opening of High Speed 2 in 2026 which will connect the airport to central London in under 50 mins. The exciting news that Birmingham will be host city to the Commonwealth Games will also strengthen performance during 2022, as well as the ongoing attraction of the National Exhibition Centre. We look forward to working with the Castlebridge Hotels team to unlock the future trading potential from the hotel.”

Jenna Dienn, Commercial Director at Castlebridge Hotels, added, “The Hilton Garden Inn, Birmingham Airport will benefit from an excellent mix of both corporate and leisure demand generators. We are delighted to have agreed terms with Blackrock which will allow Castlebridge to retain management of the hotel and extends our properties under management to 6 hotels and 694 rooms across Europe. We are currently working on several further developments which will deliver 780 guest rooms in the future.”

Olivia Chaplin, Director – Hotels Consultancy at Christie & Co comments, “This deal is illustrative of the increasing interest from different investor types in well located hotels with strong brands in good markets. We were delighted to be able to support in the acquisition due diligence process for BlackRock for this new asset, which will no doubt be very successful with Castlebridge operating.”

“Alongside these significant corporate transactions, Christie & Co’s specialist Hotel Consultancy team is also working with an increasing number of new entrants entering the hotel market as investors, providing our insightful and bespoke advisory services across a variety of deals. We are in a strong position to support investors on single asset or portfolio transactions with our network of offices and hotel market experts throughout the UK and Europe.”