Shoosmiths advises easyHotel on its expansion into Oxford
July, 2017 - Milton Keynes, England
National law firm Shoosmiths has advised easyHotel UK Limited on an agreement for lease to take a 25-year lease of a new build Hotel in Oxford, the first such lease for the hotel chain.
Located less than two miles from the city centre in Oxford’s Summertown, the site is to be redeveloped as a mixed-use property. The new 180-room easyHotel will be located on the first and second floors of the property and is expected to be open late 2019.
The new site takes the company’s pipeline of owned development projects to 781 rooms in addition to the 1,236 franchise rooms currently under development.
The Shoosmiths team that advised easyHotel was led by real estate partner Catherine Williams with assistance from Heidi Brennan on construction and Matthew Stimson on planning. The firm continues to grow its hotel sector expertise with legal advisers across multiple practice groups bringing specialist knowledge to provide hotel clients with a comprehensive legal service.
Guy Parsons, chief executive of easyHotel, commented: ‘Oxford is a premier business and tourist destination with over 7 million visitors per year. The city has been on our target list for some time and we are pleased to have agreed terms on this new hotel, which will be the closest branded budget and super budget hotel to the city centre.
Neil Short, easyHotel’s UK Development Director, ‘We are very pleased to have exchanged contracts on new premises in Oxford. The City was a priority target location for easyHotel to gain representation, there is an undersupply of bedrooms in Oxford and we believe this location out-positions all of our main competitors. We are delighted to have worked with Shoosmiths on our first leasehold transaction.’
Catherine Williams added: ‘We are extremely pleased to have assisted easyHotel in their first leasing deal and wish them all the best in their new venture in Oxford.’
Shoosmiths’ real estate group is one of the largest in the UK, made up of teams advising on real estate, construction, planning, property litigation and environmental issues.
Shoosmiths’ clients include commercial and residential developers, investors, retail and leisure operators, social housing bodies, major corporates occupiers, banks and other funders and a range of public sector bodies.
