OakNorth Bank completes £7.4M loan for new 100 bed Travelodge hotel

OakNorth Bank – the UK bank for entrepreneurs, by entrepreneurs – has provided a £7.4M loan to Burney Group, the family-run property developer and investor.

The capital will be used to develop a new five-storey Travelodge hotel, as well as a light refurbishment and split of existing retail warehouse space into smaller units.

The site is located next to Ipswich Town Football Club, less than a mile from the town centre, and a 5-minute walk from Ipswich station.

The new hotel will consist of 100 bedrooms – 63 double, 32 family, and five accessible rooms – as well as a 72-cover café and 60 car parking spaces.

Daren Burney, Founder & Managing Director of Burney Group, commented on the transaction:

“Every one of our developments is exciting to us because our intention is to build and retain everything for our portfolio.

Following its launch in 1985 as the UK’s first budget hotel brand, Travelodge has become one of the largest and most well-recognised UK hotel brands, so we take great pleasure in bringing a new one to Ipswich.

Given the site’s proximity to the train station, town centre and Ipswich Town’s home ground, we expect demand for hotel rooms and the café to be high, especially on match days.

Due to their expertise across both property and hotel trading deals, the team at OakNorth Bank were able to put together a bespoke deal structure, enabling us to acquire the site and develop the new hotel all under one facility.

This has saved us a huge amount of time and hassle, and meant we could break ground on the development of the new hotel sooner.”

Max Saidman, Associate Director of Debt Finance at OakNorth Bank, added:

“Daren has over three decades’ experience in property development and investment. His leadership, coupled with the expertise of the team he’s built, has enabled the Burney Group to grow into a well-respected and highly successful business.

We’re delighted to be once again supporting the Burney Group and look forward to watching the development of the hotel and letting of the remaining warehouse units going forward.

We are already looking forward to working with Daren on some of his other exciting projects in the near future”