Peel goes all the way with two former Thistle hotels

Peel Hotels has agreed to buy for £8.75m two of the former Thistle hotels that it has been running under a management contract for the past 18 months.

The hotels, the Golden Lion in Leeds and the Caledonian in Newcastle-upon-Tyne, both of which have 89 bedrooms, are to be sold by Grace Hotels, the subsidiary of investment firm Lehman Brothers which bought 29 hotels from Thistle last year.

Chairman Robert Peel said that the purchase of an office block next to the Golden Lion for a further £900,000 would provide an extra 25 bedrooms. The ground floor may be converted to a bar or rented out.

"There is also a lot of scope for development at the Caledonian," he said.

Peel said the group would concentrate on investing in its four owned properties before buying any more.

The company intends to raise £3.9m through a placing of shares. It is also borrowing £7m in a 10-year secured debt from the Royal Bank of Scotland.