LuLu Group International buys iconic London hotel for Rs 1,100 crore
The hotel is scheduled to open in 2017
Kochi: LuLu Group International is making its presence felt in the British capital. And in style, too. The Abu Dhabi-based retail chain will pay London developer Galliard Homes £110 million (approximately '1,100 crore) to refurbish Great Scotland Yard, an Edwardian building, into a 92,000-sq-ft 5-star hotel. The building once housed the Scotland Yard police station and later, the British Army recruitment centre for Westminster.
The hotel is scheduled to open in 2017. Construction on site is now 30 per cent complete with the interior fit out scheduled to start in March 2016, a company release said here.
The LuLu group, headed by Keralite business tycoon Yusuffali M. A., had been in talks with the developer for quite some time to buy the marquee property.
“This is the second investment by Yusuffali in London. Last year, he invested in East India Company,” the release said.
The hotel site has a fascinating history. Between 1829 and 1890 Great Scotland Yard formed part of the HQ of the newly founded Metropolitan Police force.
It was here that the famous Plaistow Marshes (1864) and Jack the Ripper (1888) crimes were investigated and Scotland Yard was made famous by novelists like Charles Dickens and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.
“The Great Scotland Yard is really an important part of the fabric of London and it will be a great opportunity for us to be a part of the culture and legacy of this great city and help in its development,” said Adeeb Ahmed, managing director of Twenty14 Holdings, the hospitality arm of LuLu Group International.
