Hotel development passes key construction milestone

A landmark new 19-storey hotel development on Manchester’s Oxford Road has passed a key construction milestone.Members of the University of Manchester, Alliance Manchester Business School, M&L Hospitality, Bruntwood, Intercontinental Hotels Group and Cygas Hospitality have attended the scheme’s topping-out ceremony.Designed by architects BDP and Leach Rhodes Walker, the project will introduce two new hotels to the city. The first is a 212-room Crowne Plaza while the second is a 116-room Staybridge Suites.Both hotels will operate under a franchise agreement with owner-partner M&L Hospitality and Cycas Hospitality, the hotel management company specialising in extended-stay hotels in the UK and Europe.The project is being undertaken by Bruntwood Construction as part of Bruntwood’s wider redevelopment of the business school for the university on Booth Street West. It will adjoin the two-storey Executive Education Centre, providing a new home for the school’s corporate leadership and management programmes.The scheme is scheduled for overall completion in early 2018.