Tristan buys Qbic Manchester with plans to rebrand property as a Yotel

Tristan Capital Partners’ EPISO 5 Fund has acquired the first property for its new €500m (£422m) hotel investment strategy – the Qbic Manchester.

The 261-bedroom hotel in Deansgate opened in May following a three-year conversion from an office building into the eco-friendly pod hotel concept. The property will be rebranded to budget brand Yotel and will be operated by Hamilton Hotel Partners.

Kristian Smyth, executive director, investments at Tristan Capital Partners said: “This acquisition represents the first step in our wider hotel strategy and we are very excited to have started with a hotel of this quality. The acquisition is our first alongside Hamilton Hotel Partners and we expect to continue to grow this relationship.”

“Funds advised by Tristan have been actively pursuing hospitality opportunities with an emphasis on the UK and Spain and we are focused on acquiring assets which we believe will fit into either our core-plus or opportunistic funds. Our objective is to invest in excess of €500m over the next 12 months and we are currently in discussions regarding a number of transactions in this space.”

The Manchester property was the second Qbic in the UK, with further sites in Brussels and Amsterdam. Both UK properties operated under the ownership of Cerberus Capital Management. Following the opening of the Qbic London City in 2013, other properties in the capital were anticipated but never materialised and the lease for London hotel was sold to Great Portland Estates and the property rebranded as the Corner London City just last month, meaning the Qbic brand no longer has any hotels operational in the UK.

Qbic has been approached for comment. The fund was advised by Greenberg Traurig, LLP, PWC, Workman and HVS.

There are 18 Yotel properties globally with several in the UK including in London, Glasgow and Edinburgh.