LONDON, November 1, 2017 — Quest Apartment Hotels, Australasia's largest and fastest growing apartment hotel operator, has marked the start of its ambitious UK expansion plans, announcing it has signed its first site in Liverpool's city centre with a £10m investment.
Established by entrepreneur Paul Constantinou nearly 30 years ago in Melbourne, the 160 strong Quest Apartment Hotels portfolio has made its name by offering a 'home away from home' to extended stay business travellers in key cities, regional towns and suburban locations across Australia, New Zealand and Fiji. With 27 properties currently in the pipeline and 12 under construction in its home markets – the brand plans to apply its successful model to open ten properties across the country in the next five years.
Quest Liverpool City Centre will open in 2019 and is located on Church Street along one of the city's biggest retail strips and adjacent to the landmark Liverpool ONE complex. The building itself is a 1980s commercial office building with retail on the ground and first floors. Quest will convert the existing vacant office space on levels two, three and four and construct additional levels five and six, creating 100 serviced apartments, reception, conference room, gym and back-of-house facilities.
The announcement comes on the back of new figures from the Association of Serviced Apartment Providers (ASAP) and hotel global benchmarking company STR which shows health and expansion in the sector this year.
Andrew Weisz, Director of UK Development at Quest said: "Hospitality brands have a huge role to play in opening up City Centre locations for business again, but against a backdrop of economic uncertainty – it is clear that businesses want to spend travel budgets wisely. We've immersed ourselves in the UK market in recent months and can see the potential for the aggressive expansion of both our brand and the apartment hotel industry here."
Encouraged by the government's Northern Powerhouse strategy, the brand has chosen Liverpool as the home of its first property outside Australasia.
Michael Ward, British Consul-General and Director General, UK Department for International Trade, Australia and New Zealand said: "We're delighted to have been working with Quest on their UK expansion plans. In the past 12 months alone, DIT has assisted over 100 Australian businesses expand to the UK – more than ever before – an indication of both the ongoing strength of the UK economy and the high level of interest in the UK market from innovative Australasian companies."
