UK: The Student Hotel (TSH) has held a ground-breaking event at the site if its 500-key project at Candleriggs Square, Glasgow.
The construction of what will become Scotland’s largest hotel is the first development phase of the regeneration of the 3.6-acre Candleriggs Square site now being delivered by a joint venture between Drum Property Group and Stamford Investments.
TSH is a pan-European investor, developer, owner and operator of a hybrid hospitality concept combining accommodation, coliving and coworking spaces with restaurants, bars, gyms, retail outlets and meetings and event spaces. The company has launched 15 hotels in many of Europe’s most high-profile city centre destinations – including Amsterdam, Florence and Berlin.
The opening of The Student Hotel in Glasgow will mark a significant personal milestone for TSH founder and chief executive, Charlie McGregor, who was born and raised in Scotland before setting up the company in 2006. He said: “Today marks the first step of what will become Scotland’s largest hotel, bringing with it our pioneering hybrid hospitality model that will introduce something very different and very exciting to the UK market. On a personal level, I am thrilled that the first TSH in the UK will be in Scotland and that our brand is finally ‘coming home’. Candleriggs Square, in the very heart of Glasgow’s historic Merchant City, provides us with the perfect location. We are very pleased to be active partners of hugely collaborative effort to regenerate this magnificent part of the city centre. We hope this will provide the perfect entry for The Student Hotel into the wider UK market and look forward to progressing our national development.”
Following the TSH start on site, the next development phase will be a 346-apartment Build-to-Rent scheme delivered on behalf of Legal & General, with construction beginning shortly.
Graeme Bone, group managing director of Drum Property Group, said: “Now, more than ever, we are committed to progressing our plans as soon as we can. For the last 20 years, the site has lain neglected and unused, becoming an unattractive gap site in an otherwise vibrant and thriving neighbourhood.The development will return Candleriggs Square to what it always was – a bustling market-place full of life, vitality and interest and intrinsically linked to the rest of the city centre, bringing with it a significant and timely boost for both the local and national economy. High-quality housing, hotels, local amenities and open spaces will combine with new pedestrian links throughout the site, making the whole Merchant City more accessible, welcoming and exciting for people living, working and visiting the area.”
