Premier Inn opens at Lion Yard, Cambridge
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Peter Wyld
Peter undertakes the full range of building surveying services predominately focusing on acquisition surveys and project delivery. Based in Cambridge, Peter frequently works in the life sciences, engineering and technology sectors assisting landlords with creating space and occupiers with relocation. Projects include the lease acquisition and project management of space on the Cambridge Research Park and Granta Park and acquisition advice on the Science Park.
Over the recent past Peter has overseen the delivery of high end Cat A and B office and laboratory space and has delivered a repair and refurbishment project of the notable Grade II* Abington Hall which was refurbished for the speculative office market. Peter has also delivered a range of other projects including an Architectural designed agricultural building conversion to high end house with Yakisugi treated cladding, solar PV and ground source heat pump.
In the retail sector Peter has been involved in acquiring and refurbishing property and helping to make the retail space as flexible as possible for an incoming user, in one case this involved a change of use project to reduce the size of the office space and introduce residential accommodation above.
Premier Inn has now opened its prime location hotel in the heart of Cambridge, after TFT completed a major refurbishment project to transform part of the Lion Yard shopping centre.
TFT project managed the repurposing of an old nightclub into a brand new 125-bedroom Premier Inn. We oversaw the entire adaptation of the building, from ripping out the old club to specifying the right curtains and beds for the Premier Inn brand. We acted for abrdn, the owner of Lion Yard.
Taking the opportunity to preserve such a significant portion of the building, we retained most of the original structure and improved the building fabric for better thermal and acoustic performance too. with improved insulation and layout which maximised the space we had available.
These substantial works took place around open retail units and a busy city-centre location, requiring a careful approach to manage all the local stakeholders while keeping the refurbishment moving to meet our client and their occupier's timelines.
“Sustainability was at the core of the Lion Yard hotel design and the project satisfies a range of key sustainability objectives, including accessibility and circularity. The existing building structure was largely retained, and we took care to reuse the materials we carefully removed as part of the refurbishment works where we could. Through the improvements we have made, including the installation of heat pumps and PV cells, we are hopeful the building will achieve an EPC ‘A’ sustainability rating.”
Stuart Howard, Senior Development Manager at abrdn.
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