An iconic Aberdeen hotel, Simpson’s, is set to relaunch as a five-star venue, with a new name, after a £5m refurbishment.
The Simpson’s Hotel on Queen’s Road will reopen as the Chester Hotel in January, with hoteliers Gillian and Graham Wood, who own Edinburgh’s luxury Chester Residence, hoping to “create something equally special in Aberdeen”. The hotel will feature 63 classic, grand and loft rooms and two suites.
At the same time Stewart Spence, who owns the Marcliffe Hotel, currently the city’s only 5-star hotel, has announced he is retiring, and is selling the hotel to office developers. The hotel currently employs around 180 staff who will lose their jobs when the hotel closes. The office development plans include a restaurant and spa on the site, and it has been suggested that the £90m office complex will create 1,200 jobs.
There was another jobs boost, with the news that work has started on the £25m De Vere Urban Village Resort resort at Aberdeen’s Prime Four business park. This will be De Vere’s first Village Resort in Scotland. The four star complex will comprise 148 bedrooms, business and conferencing facilities, a Starbucks coffee outlet, a restaurant and bar called the ‘Victory Chop and Alehouse’ and a luxury health spa and leisure club including a gym and 25m swimming pool. It is expected to open for business in the last quarter of 2014 and will create around 120 permanent jobs.
