Billionaire swoops for second Blackpool hotel

The Lyndene on The Promenade has been sold by Debbie Dunn and her family from a guide price of £6.5m with business news outlets in Singapore reporting the price as £5.25m.

The Fragrance Group owned by Koh Wee Meng has bought it as it increases the number of hotels it owns in the UK.

In February is bought the iconic Imperial for £12.8m and lately has also bought the Townhouse hotel in Manchester for £12.5m, the Crown hotel in Harrogate for £8.5m, and the Palace hotel in Torquay off a guide price of £10m.

The Lyndene is best known for its distinctive blue decor and its role as the Le Ponderosa hotel run by Frank “Hoss” Cartwright played by Lancashire funnyman Jim Bowen in the second series of Peter Kay’s Phoenix Nights.

It has 141 bedrooms plus three bars and two separate lounges and function rooms and regularly has entertainment from the likes of comic Jimmy Cricket.

It was owned by Deborah and Steven Dunn and has been in Debbie’s family since 1987 when her mum and dad Carole and Barry Young bought what was then a 33 bedroom hotel on the site.

In 2003 they invested £1m in buying the next door Belgrave Hotel to extend the property.In 2014 the hotel passed the milestone of raising £100,000 for Blackpool charity Donna’s

Dreamhouse and in 2005 recorded a song for Children in Need.

Agents Savills handled the sale and the company’s hotels director, Tom Cunningham, said: “The hotel market in the North remains particularly attractive to investors due to the prices and returns available. We have seen a renaissance in seaside towns including Blackpool.”