Helping a major global developer win approval for a £30m hotel on a sensitive seafront site
The stunning new £30 million four-star Mercure Hotel, Paignton, is open and welcoming guests - and proving to be a great addition to the business and tourism accommodation and leisure offerings in South Devon.
The work to bring the regeneration of a former hotel on the site to fruition began for international developers the Fragrance Group with the appointment of Torbay-based global architects Kay Elliott.
Following a competitive pitch, the Fragrance Group brought KOR Communications on board for the consultation and engagement process for this project and three others in Torbay.
The site of the previous Park Hotel
There were several challenges for Fragrance Group which had acquired the former Park Hotel on the site. They included persuading some in the community that redeveloping the important seafront site was a much better option than refurbishing the long-established but no longer viable existing hotel buildings.
Andrew Howard, KOR’s senior consultant and public affairs specialist, said: “Our role was to advise on strategic engagement with local stakeholders, which included Torbay Council - the unitary authority with responsibility for planning – as well as engaging with the local Community Partnership and neighbourhood organisations.”
KOR Communications organised and hosted a public exhibition close to the seafront site and gathered feedback on the proposals to support a statement of community involvement. The proposals won the backing of key stakeholders including the local MP, Kevin Foster, the Herald Express newspaper, the Torbay Development Agency and the Torbay Civic Society.
Andrew explained that part of KOR’s job was in explaining the rationale for demolishing the run-down Victorian-era hotel buildings and redeveloping the site with a new 161-bedroom hotel to meet the needs of 21st century visitors to South Devon.
“We were able to explain, at a public exhibition and through direct consultation with stakeholders, the much-needed investment that this development would bring to the local community,” Andrew said. “Not just for the hotel but for all the other businesses that would benefit from the visitors staying in this high-quality accommodation.”
As a result of our consultation work a full statement of community involvement was submitted with the planning application, which was unanimously approved by Torbay Council’s development management committee. Press releases were produced for local media outlets and, as the development progressed, updates were provided to local journalists to ensure the community was kept up to speed through traditional and new media outlets.
KOR’s involvement with the project did not end with the successful granting of planning. When the building company engaged for the project ran into financial difficulties and work had to stop KOR was able to emphasise Fragrance Group’s commitment to find another builder to finish the hotel and communicate the appointment of the new team who took on the work.
The Mercure Hotel, Paignton, was officially opened to visitors shortly before Easter 2023, in plenty of time for the important spring and summer season.
The new hotel is expected to bring an estimated 95,000 guests to Torbay each year, providing a £2million boost to the local economy. Fragrance Group is continuing to work with KOR Communications on other projects in the area and elsewhere in the UK.