EasyHotel has clawed back almost half the £1.3 million cost of a planned hotel development site in Liverpool.
The super budget chain has sold the ground floor and parts of the basement of the current office block for £600,000 to the owners of a restaurant which occupies the space at 47 Castle Street in the city.
EasyHotel acquired the freehold of the six storey building in April 2015 for £1.3 million.
Planning permission has been granted to convert the upper floors into a 79-room hotel, with an entrance on the main street and the reception on the first floor.
Refurbishment work is underway and the hotel is expected to open by January 2017.
Chief executive Guy Parsons said: “Our strategy is focused on the ownership of high quality hotel assets and this transaction enables us to recycle capital through the disposal of surplus assets, the proceeds of which can be re-invested in future owned hotel projects in order to maximise shareholder returns.”
The Liverpool site is part of planned expansion with new properties owned in Birmingham and Manchester and hotels in Ipswich and Barcelona subject to planning permission. Franchise hotel are also planned for Amsterdam, Brussels and Dubai.