New £7.1m Blackpool hotel set for festive season opening

Work is nearly complete on the Talbot Square building - on the sites of the former Yates’ Wine Lodge - which will create 60 jobs for the resort.

Owners Whitbread said it will be known as the Blackpool North Pier Premier Inn and Cookhouse and Pub restaurant.

The new hotel and restaurant development will be on Talbot Square will offer full and part time roles across both businesses.

The addition of 150 hotel rooms will increase Premier Inns total rooms in Blackpool by 50 per cent to over 450, bringing more accommodation choice to visitors to the area.T

he company said the task of opening a new Premier Inn hotel and restaurant is considerable in normal times, but under COVID-19 restrictions meant the task took longer as the team worked to open the hotel in a socially distanced and safe way.

The hotel will also be opening with Premier Inn’s enhanced hygiene promise.

Whitbread said it was keen on attracting Blackpool residents to the jobs coming up, and particularly those out of education, employment or training, to join the team.

Richard Aldread, head of construction for Whitbread said: “We are looking forward to opening our newest hotel and restaurant near Blackpool’s North Pier, so that even more people will now be able to enjoy all that the area offers.

“As a business, we’re absolutely committed to investing back into the areas where we operate and are really pleased to have been able to bring so many important new year-round jobs to the town.

“We are looking forward to establishing ourselves as a valuable and successful member of the community.”

Over the coming weeks, Whitbread’s New Openings Team will start to kick off the search for team members, who will then be fully trained ahead of the opening of the new hotel and restaurant.

Once recruitment starts, towards the end of October, jobs will be made available through local branches of the Job Centre Plus and via Whitbread's website.

The hotel was due to be completed in spring this year, but the lockdown caused delays. It has been built on the site of the former Wine Lodge which was destroyed in a fire in 2009. Prior to that it was home to the Theatre Royal and the Tivoli Cinema.