The team behind Middlesbrough’s highly popular Holiday Inn Express hotel is creating a new accommodation concept for the town, where guests will enjoy “home from home plus” affordable luxury.
Developer Ashall Projects and the other major investors who opened the hotel nearly 10 years ago are now launching Station Suites: 42 spacious apartments which will be ready in the Spring.
They are spending £1.7m on a major refurbishment and upgrade programme over six floors of the Crown House building on Linthorpe Road, close to Middlesbrough Railway Station. The serviced apartments there used to trade as Dream Suites.
At the same time a £1m enhancement of all 159 rooms at the Holiday Inn Express has been carried out.
The double investment is being made as a response to concerns, voiced by Tees Valley Mayor Ben Houchen and others, about the lack of accommodation to cater for the influx of workers and visitors involved in giant projects such as Net Zero Teesside and the Darlington Economic Campus.
“The Holiday Inn continues to do a great job in looking after people who might be coming to Middlesbrough for a relatively short stay,” said Ashall Projects’ Managing Director Mark Ashall. “Station Suites will provide somewhere different, particularly if guests are going to be away from home for a number of days.”
There will be 33 apartments which, at 25m2, are about a third bigger than the average hotel room. There are also six bigger suites – they will be 33m2 – and three two-bedroom apartments.
“Station Suites will offer them a home from home plus,” said Mr Ashall. “That’s just not about the excellent quality of the rooms, we think it’s really important to provide a complete service. So, for example, there will be a member of staff on site 24 hours a day. You rarely get this in other serviced apartments and, of course, never in an Airbnb.”
Station Suites is a short walk from the station, with its links to London, and a stone’s throw from Middlesbrough town centre.
When they arrive guests will receive a welcome food pack and on the ground floor they will find a reception, a large comfortable seating and dining area – where they can also hold informal meetings or just relax – a pantry and a bar serving drinks and snacks.
The refurbishment of the rooms started in January and they will all be fitted with new furniture, including a king size bed. Each suite will have a kitchen area with a microwave, kettle and sink.
Station Suites will be managed by the award-winning team from the Holiday Inn Express which is located just a short distance away and it will adopt the same high environmental standards as the hotel.
Ashall Projects is looking at other projects in the area and is inviting companies who have secured contracts across the Tees Valley to discuss their accommodation needs.
“Everybody welcomed the wave of announcements about new jobs on Teesside, but they were also quick to raise concerns about a skills shortage. There’s also a serious room shortage,” warned Mr Ashall.
“It’s going to take a while to provide a local workforce with the training they’ll need to carry out the new roles required by Net Zero Teesside, for instance. In the meantime those people with the suitable experience, their support staff and consultants will be arriving in their thousands from outside the area and they’re going to need somewhere to stay.”
He added: “They expect high standards. They want space, comfort and as near to a home-from-home experience as possible – and we think we’re providing something even better than that at Station Suites.”
Ashall Projects has made a major impact on Middlesbrough town centre during the last decade. As well as opening the Holiday Inn Express, it has built three office buildings where around 1,500 people now work.
