London-based investment firm Aprirose has sold the 232-room Queens Hotel in Leeds, England, to Stockholm-based hotel owner and operator Pandox AB.
In a news release, it said the sale of the “business and leisure hotel, one of the most famous landmarks in Leeds, includes both the property and hotel operations.” The price of 53 million pounds sterling ($64 million) represents a stabilized yield of over 9%.
Publicly listed Pandox also announced the deal in a news release, stating “the acquisition will initially be financed by existing liquid funds and credit facilities.”
Aprirose said the hotel had a 16 million pounds sterling ($19.24 million) renovation in 2021 that added 17 rooms.
The hotel formerly was in Aprirose’s QHotels Collection, which now has 20 hotels — including one under Accor, three under Hilton and two under Marriott International brand flags.
Until the Pandox acquisition, the Queens Hotel was not aligned to an international hotel firm.
Pandox now has approximately 160 hotels and more than 35,500 guest rooms in 15 countries.
The Queens Hotel is on City Square, the main square of Leeds, the U.K.’s fourth-largest city by population behind London, Manchester and Birmingham, respectively.
The hotel also has a private entrance from the concourse of Leeds’ main rail station.
According to the hotel’s website, the hotel, opened in 1937, has welcomed such luminaries as Princess Grace of Monaco, Cary Grant, Nelson Mandela and comedians Laurel and Hardy.
The Leeds deal came one day after a similar-size acquisition in England — Irish hotel firm Dalata Hotel Group’s 44.3 million pounds sterling ($53.49 million) acquisition of the entire share capital of Furadino Holdings’ Tide Developments project in the Finsbury Park area of London and an as-yet-opened 192-room hotel due to be Dalata’s first Maldron-branded hotel in the capital.