Jennifer and Stephen discuss plans for an elite football training facility, investment in a soft play company, and the acquisition of a Cheshire hotel.
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00:00Plans for an elite football training facility, investment in a soft play company and the
00:05acquisition of a Cheshire hotel feature in today's business briefing.
00:14Good morning Jen, I believe you've got some South West Deals news for us to start with.
00:17I do. So the Play Company, which is a South Devon based company, has secured a £500,000
00:23loan from the British Business Bank's South West Investment Fund via the FSE Group. The
00:29company designs, manufactures and installs soft play structures, interactive play areas
00:34and sports pitches for the family entertainment sector. So the investment will support the
00:39company's growth and expansion plans, including the creation of 20 shops over the next three
00:44years and the funding is also set to enhance its operational capacity and expand its international
00:49reach by allowing it to invest in new staff and a larger premises as well as increase
00:55its marketing efforts.
00:57Sounds like a really interesting story there. Well up in South Yorkshire we've got plans
01:01submitted for a new elite football training centre. The proposals for Martin Grange Farm
01:06in Bortory include indoor and outdoor football training facilities as well as residential
01:12accommodation and that's targeted at professional football teams playing games in the north
01:17of England, so they've suggested sort of Champions League teams, Premier League teams, as well
01:22as teams on pre-season training, things like that. The facilities for the elite clubs would
01:27include a gym, hydro pool, changing rooms and medical areas and for players in the downtime
01:33there'd also be a walking trail and paddle facilities. The accommodation would provide
01:38rooms for squads of up to 50, so yeah, really big development there and it's been estimated
01:45that once operational more than 40 jobs could be created and it would generate about 1.8
01:52million of GVA per year. A planning application has now been submitted to Doncaster City Council
01:58so there should be a decision on that hopefully later this year.
02:01Great. Well, on the topic of property news, the Forrester Hotel and Wedding Venue Mere
02:08Court Hotel was acquired by Truffle Hotels. The hotel is located just outside Knutsford
02:14and it was purchased off a guide price of £4 million from Edgman Limited, which is
02:19a North East based hotel group that had operated the venue for a number of years.
02:23Stephen Percy, who is the Partner and Head of Commercial Property at SAS Daniels and
02:28Paul Tyre, the partner in the corporate team, acted on behalf of the buyer and Truffle Hotels
02:33said it is looking to invest across the whole business to increase the leisure offering
02:38and to bring out the hotel's full potential.
02:40Oh, interesting. Hotel stories, of course, always popular with the New Zealander readers.
02:44Yeah, for sure.
02:45Well, last thing from us today. In the North East, we've got the team behind Middlesbrough's
02:49Holiday Inn Express Hotel, which is now transforming a vacant building in the town into luxury
02:54service departments. Developer Ashall Properties, together with some of the other investors
02:58who brought forward the hotel ten years ago, are now transforming it into station suites,
03:03which will comprise 42 service departments in the Crown Building on Linthorpe Road.
03:08The six-storey building is located close to the town's train station and it's going to
03:13undergo a £1.7 million refurbishment. Alongside that development, a £1 million enhancement
03:19of the 159 rooms at the Holiday Inn is also going to take place.
03:24I know this is being made in response to concerns some people have raised about a lack of accommodation
03:30in the area for workers and visitors coming to the area to work on the major developments
03:37currently ongoing in the Teesside area. So things like Net Zero Teesside and the Darlington
03:42Economic Campus. So it's good to see that those developments are being thought about.
03:48Yeah, for sure. Well, to hear more on that story and every other story that we covered today,
03:53you can head on over to insidermedia.com, where you can also sign up to our newsletters
03:57and hear about upcoming events. Thank you.