Insider Media Limited

Birmingham is set to house a new £24m hotel complex - the first privately funded property from the newly-founded Hotel La Tour group. The company's managing director, Jane Schofield, told Insider the company planned to open five more hotels in the same number of years and was looking at "every major city in the UK" as a potential investment.

The 174-bedroom hotel is the first development to get underway in Birmingham's new City Park Gate district.

Hotel La Tour was founded by the former management team of Midlands-based Hayley Conference Centres, which was sold in 2007 to private equity firm Permira in a £358m deal. The company is based in Northampton.

Schofield and her team secured funding from HSBC to set up Hotel La Tour once the buyout of Hayley Conference Centres had been completed.

It is estimated the three-sided, £24m hotel will create 100 jobs when it is due to open in February next year. The hotel, which will also comprise conferencing facilities, a restaurant, bar and street café, is one of the city's only privately-funded projects currently underway.

Schofield said: "We chose to launch in Birmingham as it is such a central UK location, and it has a vibrant economic climate, both in terms of business and leisure. The city's hotel and leisure industries haven't really been invested in to their fullest potential over the past few years."

She also denied it was too challeniging a time to laucnh a new business in the hospitality sector.

"Any time can be good or bad to launch a business - it depends on the quality of the product.

"With no new entrants or major refurbishment investment in the West Midlands hotel sector for some time, Birmingham is ready for something new."

She said she wanted Hotel La Tour to expand across the country over the next few years, with Manchester and outer London the next targets for the group.

"We're really looking at every major city in the UK as a potential investment. But we will definitely be heading up north to Manchester and down south next. After that, we'll look to move into Scotland and infiltrate across the UK.

"We're looking to open five hotels over the next five year, but obviously that's dependant on planning permission and being able to find suitable plots."

Wouter Schuitemaker, investment director of Business Birmingham, said the company's decision to locate its first development in Birmingham was "significant" for the city’s hospitality sector.

He said: "Hotel La Tour is not alone in recognising the benefits of investing in Birmingham and the hospitality sector, worth nearly £400m annually, is eagerly anticipating some exciting additions to its existing property portfolio.

"There are currently 23 hotels at various stages in the development pipeline, despite the global economic climate providing funding challenges in this sector. Each premises offers its own unique proposition for both business and leisure visitors, and the sector as a whole reflects the diverse requirements of the two million occupants who book overnight stays in our vibrant city each year."