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.