Premier Inn pulls out of Brevik hotel site

Hotel chain Premier Inn have announced that they will no longer be investing in a 98-bedroom hotel on the former Brevik House site.

In a short statement released on Tuesday, the company’s acquisition manager for Scotland, Nick Johnston, said they had taken the decision not to progress the discussions further “as it is not financially viable to create a new Premier Inn hotel on the site”.

“Unfortunately in this instance we have not been able to make the economics of the Brevik House site work for us,” he said.

Breiwick Bay Properties Ltd., the developer of the Brevik site, said they were “very disappointed and surprised” that Premier Inn had decided to withdraw their interest in the site.

“The decision was taken by the Premier Inn board of directors as they do not see a hotel development in Shetland as financially viable at this stage.

“We are now looking at other hotel operators and in any case we have an excellent residential scheme for the site with full planning permission.”

Planning permission was granted by council planners in July 2019 for the construction of a 91-bedroom hotel on the Brevik House, with the size later increased to 98-bedrooms.

That followed the approval of plans to build 24 flats, four semi-detached and five detached homes on the same site, which were approved in October 2018.

Both planning permissions remain valid, and should Breiwick Bay Properties fail to find a suitable hotelier to take on their 98-bedroom hotel plans they will be able to revert to the housing proposal.

More in this Friday’s edition of The Shetland Times.