Hong Kong-based hotel operator Dorsett Hospitality International bought The Matrix building at 9 Aldgate in 2012 from the administrators of Beetham and secured planning permission for its redevelopment in 2013.
Willmott Dixon will convert the site into the four-star Dorsett City London hotel, adding three floors to the building to make it 13 storeys high.
The Matrix building flanks Aldgate tube station and the 18th Century St Botolph-without-Aldgate Church.
Willmott Dixon starts on site in May and is scheduled to complete in December 2016.
The contract award strengthens Willmott Dixon’s presence in the hotel sector following its recent completion of a Novotel in Hounslow and a Holiday Inn at London Southend Airport and on-going refurbishment work for Travelodge. Also, the contractor’s fit-out arm recently completed upgrade work to the Mandarin Oriental hotel in Knightsbridge.
Roger Forsdyke, managing director at Willmott Dixon’s Cobham office said: “This is a really interesting office to hotel conversion right in the heart of the City of London, providing new capacity in this fast growing part of London. Importantly, it plays to our strengths and know-how of working on tight, constrained sites in urban locations, as well as our record for working in historic parts of London on landmark buildings.”
Excluding the £14m purchase cost that Dorsett paid for the site in 2013, the total cost of the conversion to Dorsett has been estimated at just short of £22m.
Dorsett Hospitality International’s first UK hotel, Dorsett Shepherds Bush, opened in 2014.
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