Cornwall Council has confirmed a deal has been struck to bring a Courtyard by Marriott hotel to Cornwall Airport Newquay, mere weeks after being accused of not being “bothered picking the phone up” to secure the agreement. The newly-agreed deal is set to inject up to £30m of direct investment into the development, while also generating 30 full-time equivalent jobs.
This agreement will bring a world-class hotel, leisure, and business complex to Cornwall, serving not only the airport but also the surrounding area, including Newquay and the wider Duchy.
This breakthrough comes after stakeholders expressed growing frustration in January, citing that Cornwall Council had gone silent on the project, sparking concerns that the deal was on the verge of collapse. The council’s efforts to find a financial partner to ‘privatise’ the airport had also hit a roadblock, fuelling the anger among stakeholders.
The council had been in talks with Fairbairn Capital – a private equity firm -about bringing the first Marriott hotel in Cornwall to the airport in late 2022 after the local authority’s agents Vickery Holman marketed a 1.55-hectare site at the Aerohub Business Park, adjacent to the airport, for use as a hotel with planning permission attached.
A formal bid was submitted to the council in December 2022, with heads of terms agreed the following February.
It was later in that year when the council began its search for a financial ally to take on airport operations, and sources connected to the Marriott hotel scheme noted that this is when communication from the council dwindled regarding their arrangement.
Speaking to us earlier in January, an insider associated with the deal expressed concerns: “The council loses one deal and is at risk of losing another. No one has been in touch with us. They’re at risk of losing this deal for a Marriott hotel through inactivity.”
At the start of the year individuals involved with the hotel initiative disclosed plans to approach the ombudsman and were contemplating a judicial review against Cornwall Council, conditional upon whether the airport partnership with the US investment firm Adynaton/Westcore had materialised.
With legal formalities expected to wrap up in the coming weeks, it’s anticipated that a planning submission will occur within this year. Welcoming this development, Cllr David Harris, the deputy leader of Cornwall Council and portfolio holder for resources, said: “I am really pleased to be able to announce this agreement has been reached. It is just one small step among the wider plans to make better use of the airport estate where we continue to discuss opportunities with our preferred partner moving forwards.”.
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