Tune Hotels is to open another budget property, this time in London’s Canary Wharf.
The 130-room hotel, sited near to the Four Seasons Canary Wharf on a vacant plot on Hertsmere Road, is expected to open in early 2015. Construction will start in the next few weeks.
The property is the latest stage of plans to boost Tune’s London portfolio from 616 rooms to 1,500. Tune, set up by Air Asia founder Tony Fernandes, has four properties in London, one in Edinburgh and 29 others in Asia Pacific and Australia. It expects to have 100 worldwide by 2016.
The new hotel will follow the standard Tune format but rooms will have upgraded design features.
Like Tune’s other properties in Westminster, Liverpool Street, Paddington and King’s Cross, the property will be run under a management contract by Queensway Hotels, but there will be a new 50 per cent investor in the form of the Wellcome Trust. This replaces the previous backer, Mountgrange, which has exited after three years.
A Mountgrange spokesman explained: “We took the risk and got Tune to where it is. Wellcome Trust is a more long-term investor.”