Zedwell accelerates growth with trio of hotel signings

Zedwell has announced a trio of hotel signings in recent weeks across Oxford, York and London’s Spitalfields as the group targets 9,000 rooms by 2028.

The Criterion Capital-backed hotel group confirmed plans to convert a vacant office at 39 Bell Lane in Spitalfields into a 143-bedroom hotel with more than 7,500 sq ft of affordable workspace across the ground and first floors, available to local businesses.

The six-storey site will amount to roughly 40,000 sq ft of space upon the completion of a vertical extension, façade enhancements and active frontages.

Just last week, Zedwell announced plans to convert the Grade II-listed 48 Coney Street in York into a city-centre hotel as it expands into destinations its head of hotels Halima Aziz described as “high-demand gateway cities”.

The hotel group also recently acquired the freehold of the six-storey, 22,000 sq ft Oxenford House in central Oxford.

Aziz added: “With a current and committed pipeline of more than 9,000 rooms by 2028, we are continuing to build a scalable platform in the world’s most supply-constrained urban markets, and Spitalfields represents another important step in that journey.”

Zedwell is the in-house hotel brand from Criterion Capital and is known for its signature cocoon-style rooms, which offer advanced soundproofing, purified air systems and ambient lighting.

Last autumn, it opened a 1,000-pod capsule hotel in London’s Piccadilly Circus in a bid to disrupt the budget accommodation sector.

Criterion Capital is a real estate owner and platform operator with a portfolio of more than 25 hotels across the UK and commercial holdings in 30 buildings in prime London locations, including in Piccadilly Circus, Leicester Square and Knightsbridge.