Update on Proposed Hotel Development by TCSL at Falmer

Cian · Jan 27, 2015

Peter Grummit said:
And a bespoke new ticket office by the looks of the plan. Which suggests that it won't be a standalone hotel developed by one of the big chains.

PG

Most of the big chains don't develop their own hotels and haven't for years - third parties build the physical infrastructure and award a management contract to one of the chains. Carlson Rezidor are without a hotel in/near Brighton and deal with many unusually constrained sites (airside in airports, etc) so they could easily be an option.

Napper · Jan 27, 2015

So will a hotel class as income to Bha in the ffp battle ?

deletebeepbeepbeep · Jan 27, 2015

Napper said:
So will a hotel class as income to Bha in the ffp battle ?

Yes, any profit can be fed into the football club and count towards FFP.

Peter Grummit · Jan 27, 2015

drew said:
I don't quite understand some people's anxiety about the club appearing not to be honest about potential plans for a hotel. If reference to it in the original planning application would have meant that the whole scheme would have been thrown out then who would have been happy with that? The club, and fans, were up against it to get the go ahead in the first place and only and idiot would have said we are planning massive more developments in the area once the stadium is built. Also, the club may well have been honest about the hotel at the planning stage but it seems clear that once we moved into the Amex, running costs were more than originally anticipated so they need to do something to make the business more sustainable.

Reality is all developers work like this. A planning application can only be determined on its standalone merits. Not on the potential for further development. Thus, the hotel application will be determined on its incremental case. Given the regular queueing back from the A27 junction on to the trunk road, the HA will almost certainly object to any incremental traffic generation at Falmer. I know there is a junction solution that has been looked at by consultants on behalf of the City Council, but the funding of this may need a contribution from the development via S106 payments (development gain). No doubt Martin Perry is fully engaged on this.

PG

Vegas Seagull · Jan 27, 2015

Peter Grummit said:
Reality is all developers work like this. A planning application can only be determined on its standalone merits. Not on the potential for further development. Thus, the hotel application will be determined on its incremental case. Given the regular queueing back from the A27 junction on to the trunk road, the HA will almost certainly object to any incremental traffic generation at Falmer. I know there is a junction solution that has been looked at by consultants on behalf of the City Council, but the funding of this may need a contribution from the development via S106 payments (development gain). No doubt Martin Perry is fully engaged on this.

PG

Indeed, at Shoreham Holmbush the giant Tesco has expanded twice, M&S once & The biggest Next in the UK have all been allowed so now the car parks struggle for all 3 on occasions. Hotel traffic would be 1% of that attacking the Holmbush roundabout and even that sorts itself out

Blue Valkyrie · Jan 27, 2015

Bwian said:
It was denied by everybody within the planning application war department. Surely the club didn't lie to us?

I suspect that the club really didn't lie, and at the time there were no plans at all for a hotel.

A new chairman comes in and looks for revenue generating possibilities across the entire spectrum, and a hotel is identified as one such opportunity.

Who knows, maybe it was Norman Baker and crew who actually unintentionally seeded the very idea somewhere.

OzMike · Jan 27, 2015

I bet there will be a casino or gaming tables in it.

Garry Nelson's Left Foot · Jan 27, 2015

How much would a hotel bring in each year? And how much would a casino bring in? Is a casino likely?

kevo · Jan 27, 2015

HastingsSeagull said:
I'd have thought parents / relatives visiting kids at both uni would be a market too.

They will have to price it below city centre options though in my eyes as convenience is only one of many factors

Some people earlier on this thread were talking about it being a 4-star hotel. I think that would be too pricey if they are aiming for the university/football fan trade as well as people visiting Brighton who are happy to stay outside the city centre. A competitively-priced 3-star would make much more sense.

Marty___Mcfly · Jan 27, 2015

Is it going to look as good as Norwich's Holiday Inn?

Peter Grummit · Jan 27, 2015

Marty___Mcfly said:
Is it going to look as good as Norwich's Holiday Inn?

View attachment 62332

Is that an England U21 game?

PG

seagullsovergrimsby · Jan 27, 2015

kevo said:
Some people earlier on this thread were talking about it being a 4-star hotel. I think that would be too pricey if they are aiming for the university/football fan trade as well as people visiting Brighton who are happy to stay outside the city centre. A competitively-priced 3-star would make much more sense.

Going 3* also opens up opportunities to the coach holiday and short break markets to increase occupancy levels.

vauxhallexile · Jan 28, 2015

Blue Valkyrie said:
I suspect that the club really didn't lie, and at the time there were no plans at all for a hotel.

A new chairman comes in and looks for revenue generating possibilities across the entire spectrum, and a hotel is identified as one such opportunity.

Who knows, maybe it was Norman Baker and crew who actually unintentionally seeded the very idea somewhere.

Nonsense - given the derision poured on all opponents of the stadium at the time, anything they said would not have been listened to. But as some people warned at the time, Norman Baker has a habit of getting things right...I bet you someone on the board was considering it even if they hadn't submitted any formal "plans"...

Blue Valkyrie · Jan 28, 2015

vauxhallexile said:
Nonsense - given the derision poured on all opponents of the stadium at the time, anything they said would not have been listened to. But as some people warned at the time, Norman Baker has a habit of getting things right...I bet you someone on the board was considering it even if they hadn't submitted any formal "plans"...

Not nonsense at all. I really believe that the club didn't lie to anyone about a hotel at the time.

It could even be Paul Barber who pushed this revenue generating project and he wasn't even at the club at the time.

Thunder Bolt · Jan 28, 2015

Bwian said:
It was denied by everybody within the planning application war department. Surely the club didn't lie to us?

When we put the planning application in, the building was going to be for Sussex College, but then funding was withdrawn. I'm fairly sure that we didn't have a hotel in mind at that point.

The Birdman · Jan 28, 2015

seagullsovergrimsby said:
Going 3* also opens up opportunities to the coach holiday and short break markets to increase occupancy levels.

And tours of our ground and museum :thumbsup:

RexCathedra · Jan 28, 2015

This seems a natural -- Robert Kraft, who never misses a trick, has a hotel right next to the Patriots' stadium in Foxborough.
Hell, there's a whole mall.

NFL teams have to make due with only ~10 guaranteed dates a year, albeit the tickets are more expensive, and the stadium is 2x the capacity.. (£50 for the worst seat in the house)

Lincoln Imp · Jan 28, 2015

Thunder Bolt said:
When we put the planning application in, the building was going to be for Sussex College, but then funding was withdrawn. I'm fairly sure that we didn't have a hotel in mind at that point.

This is the key point - if the college building had gone up there simply wouldn't have been any room for a hotel. Norman Baker's suggestion that the club was planning a hotel was just one of his scattergun claims, which involved everything from potential corruption downwards. Some of his mates were predicting a supermarket next to the ground and one of the more excitable village campaigners was warning of a solid belt of development from Falmer to Rottingdean.

Lincoln Imp · Jan 28, 2015

Peter Grummit said:
Reality is all developers work like this. A planning application can only be determined on its standalone merits. Not on the potential for further development. Thus, the hotel application will be determined on its incremental case. Given the regular queueing back from the A27 junction on to the trunk road, the HA will almost certainly object to any incremental traffic generation at Falmer. I know there is a junction solution that has been looked at by consultants on behalf of the City Council, but the funding of this may need a contribution from the development via S106 payments (development gain). No doubt Martin Perry is fully engaged on this.

PG

Surely the traffic generated by the hotel would be far smaller than that generated by existing users of Village Way, and vastly smaller than anything connected with stadium matchdays? Also, hotel staff and guest traffic would be spread fairly evenly over all times and days of the week and so would have little effect on the peaks of activity just before and after matches.

I guess that is what Martin Perry would argue and it seems a fair argument to me.

Black Rod · Jan 28, 2015

Football club in lying to their fans and local community shocker

Does anybody really care that the club may have been economical with the truth? All seems a bit precious to me to think that we are somehow different to every other football club in the land and would be told the truth about everything

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Update on Proposed Hotel Development by TCSL at Falmer

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