MANCHESTER Airport City main contractor Beijing Construction Engineering Group International is preparing to start work early next year on four hotels adjacent to the new airport terminal.

The new hotels are additional to the one-billion-pound (US$1.38 billion) investment in Terminal 2 and the airport being made by Manchester Airport Group (MAG).

The first two hotels are worth a combined 80 million pounds, and are being developed by MAG, BCEGI and the Greater Manchester Pension Fund for hotel consortium P1 Hotels, after a 30-million-pound equity investment by MAG, BCEGI and the fund.

A Holiday Inn will have 280 rooms over six floors, while an Ibis Budget hotel will offer 262 rooms over seven floors. A planning application for both buildings has now been submitted and construction is due to start in early 2019, with completion scheduled for the first quarter of 2021.

The two hotels form part of the Airport’s wider 180-million-pound hotel district. Plans for a 100-million-pound development of two more hotels opposite the airport’s train station were submitted late last year and approved in February. Led by developer Versant Hotels, the proposals are for two nine-storey blocks housing hotels of 375 beds and 245 beds, to be operated by Hilton Garden Inn and Hampton By Hilton.

“Hotels are a key component on Airport City and the development and construction of this new district will provide valuable employment opportunities for the local area while supporting the continued expansion of Manchester Airport,” says Dongwen Yu, lead director at Beijing Construction Engineering Group International and Airport City Joint Venture Partner.