New hotel owners are in love with Teesside

Jan 8 2008 by Sarah Judd, Evening Gazette

NEW owners at a Teesside hotel are defying Middlesbrough’s ‘worst town’ slur after choosing the area above everywhere else in the UK to grow their business.

Managing director Jeremy Leeds, 50, and his wife Louise, 40, took ownership of the Parkmore Hotel on Yarm Road, Eaglescliffe, after moving from the Chevin Country Park Hotel, Otley, in Yorkshire.

Jeremy, who was born in Cambridge and has lived all over the UK thanks to his father’s RAF career, was managing director of Chevin and also the Ruthin Castle Hotel, in North Wales.

But the new owners admit they have fallen in love with Teesside.

Jeremy said: “I thought Middlesbrough being described as the worst town in the country was a disgrace, because we moved up here when we took the hotel over and we love the place, and even more so, the people.

“We are happy to settle down here after moving all around the UK including Wales and Scotland, and that says a lot.

“We hope to build up a small group of four or five hotels in the Tees Valley and North Yorkshire area over the coming years. We want to put something into the Teesside area and people are backing us 100%.”

The hotel is also highlighting Middlesbrough’s business and commerce credentials, after increasing occupancy levels from corporate customers.

Jeremy said: “Many of our corporate guests, who account for 80% of our business, come to the Tees Valley to do business in Middlesbrough and the surrounding centres of industry and commerce, and at peak times we are having to turn people away.”

The 55-bedroom hotel is achieving 92% occupancy - almost double the regional average - and is generally full to capacity from Mondays to Thursdays.

The couple have also seen a substantial improvement in the number of guests dining in their refurbished restaurant since they took over eight months ago.

The 70-cover restaurant was rebranded J’s @ 636 after undergoing a brasserie-style transformation.

Since the transformation, 20% more guests eat in the hotel restaurant than previously.

Jeremy said: “We regard the hotel as our home and we want our guests to stay with us rather than go to the neighbours for dinner, which is what was happening.

“On our first night here we had 53 guests and only eight dined in the restaurant. It’s quite different now.”

The hotel’s function rooms and reception area have also benefited from a makeover.

Craig Iley, Head of Alliance and Leicester’s Tees Valley Business Centre, who made the couple aware the hotel was available, said: “Jeremy and Louise are very good hotel operators.

“Alliance and Leicester has enormous confidence in the Tees Valley and its economic future.”