Hastings Premier Inn: Developers reveal when new 84-bedroom hotel will be complete

Building work on the hotel started five months ago in August.

Diggers and other machinery arrived at the site of the former Cornwallis Street car park preparing and flattening the ground to make way for the start of construction of the hotel.

Developers said this week that they are currently ‘on track’ with the timetable of works.

Jordan Tomkinson, project manager for Whitbread plc, the parent company to Premier Inn, said: “We are excited to be bringing Premier Inn to Hastings town centre, a key location in our network strategy.

“The new hotel will deliver real long-lasting benefits to the town, from year-round employment opportunities to increased visitor spending in the local economy, which we are all upbeat about in the team.

“Construction is moving at pace led by Whitbread’s principal contractor, Carter Lauren. The ground-floor concrete slab has been laid, and the contractor team is now progressing with the construction of the frame of the new hotel building.

“Completing the steel frame will be our focus during the winter and residents should start to see the structure of the new hotel building taking shape as we enter the spring.

“We are aiming for the new hotel to be complete this year which we are currently on track to achieve through the hard work of everyone working on the development.”

The Cornwallis Street car park was permanently closed more than two years ago to make way for the construction of the 84-bedroom Premier Inn.

In February 2022, planners at Hastings Borough Council approved proposals to build the new five-store hotel at the Cornwallis Street car park.

The application was led by the authority, which owns the land.

The proposals, which were submitted by Whitbread plc in late 2021, attracted opposition from some residents in the area.

Objections included fears that the building would lead to a loss of light and privacy for nearby residents in Mann Street, South Terrace and St Andrews Square.

The site of the former Cornwallis Street car park was also sold by the council early in 2024 to make way for the new Premier Inn after the building project’s cost almost doubled.

When first agreed in October 2019, the project was expected to cost around £7m. But in September 2023 cabinet members backed proposals to increase the project’s capital programme budget to £13.6m.

The council said the hotel build process will create around 35 construction jobs and when it opens it will provide 84 beds, around 30 jobs and bring an estimated visitor spend of £2.1m a year.