Plan for £30m city hotel, office complex

The 10-storey Whitehall Plaza scheme, on Whitehall Road, will include a 130-bed Premier Inn hotel and restaurant as well as 50,000 sq ft of office accommodation with associated basement parking.

Leeds-based Gregory Projects and Marshalls, of Elland, who are behind the scheme, propose to build on a vacant 0.6 acre site in front of the No 1 Whitehall Riverside office block in the heart of the business district in the West End of the city centre.

The development will face Whitehall Road on the approach into the city, incorporating an entrance colonnade to access the office reception. The hotel entrance on the east corner will include a ground floor restaurant facing onto Whitehall Road.

The offices will be located on the first, second, third and fourth floors. Floors two to four will include large open plan floor plates. A main circulation core will rise through the offices to the fifth floor where the hotel bedrooms will rise to the ninth level.

Carl Braim, of The Harris Partnership, who designed the scheme, said: “The proposal will provide a contemporary inclusion to the riverside area of Leeds, using high quality materials to create a crisp, modern building.”

He added: “Included in the proposal will be the road widening of Whitehall Road and the inclusion of a new cycle lane to improve the connectivity to the city. New pedestrian routes will also be established from the building to the river side.”

A planning decision is expected by the end of the year with an anticipated start on site in the first half of 2012.

Richard Tovey, at Gregory Projects, said: “We intend to pre-let the offices, which will allow potential occupiers the chance to influence the overall design and layout of their space.”

Joint letting agents are Sanderson Weatherall and DTZ. WSB are representing Premier Inn.