Dorsett Hospitality International, Hong Kong, on Friday announced it has received re-development planning permission from The City of London Corp. to rebuild The Matrix building into a hotel to be known as Dorsett City, London, the group’s second hotel in London. The site is located at 9 Aldgate, which flanks the Aldgate tube station and the 18th century St Botolph Church.
“This is the final office to hotel conversion that The City of London Corp. will grant,” said John Connolly, head of UK Development for Dorsett. “Given the architectural sensitivity of this historic and typically dense area of London, The Matrix is indeed a landmark building, both figuratively as well as architecturally; and we are indeed honoured and grateful to the local community and The City of London Corp. for granting us the approval to proceed with our re-development plan,” he added.
Dorsett has been liaising closely with various entities in the surrounding areas earmarked for this hotel development. In keeping true to the group’s philosophy of working closely with the community in location where the group operates, so as to ensure minimum impact to the local heritage and environment, the group will provide a parcel land to St Botolph Church for this very purpose which will also enable the Church to carry out further beautification and landscaping work, and greater accessibility by the local community.
In respect of the surrounding heritage settings and town planning requirements, the 13-story Dorsett City, London will be a sleek and sensitively designed building with 275 guestrooms, and further houses two restaurants, a bar and meeting facilities.
Scheduled to open Q4 of 2015, this new development further fortifies Dorsett’s vision to continue to expand its hotel portfolio in selected strategic regions in the United Kingdom and Europe. The group’s first hotel, Dorsett Shepherds Bush is geared for opening in the first quarter of 2014.