Apartments offer a luxury visit
A YOUNG entrepreneur who studied at Newcastle University has brought his latest enterprise to the city.
Adam Thorpe, 27, is opening 23 luxury serviced apartments for tourists and business travellers in Newcastle ahead of schedule.
He has teamed up with the Mandale Group to open the flats at Hanover Mill on the Quayside under his SuperiorStay brand.
“We’re competing with the hotels, effectively,” he said.
“In Newcastle, we will work with the corporates, making sure we are promoting a good service and a very, very enjoyable experience.”
The first SuperiorStay apartments were opened in Harrogate last year to provide “trendy and quirky” accommodation for people visiting the town for conferences. The idea is
to provide an alternative to a hotel, offering maid and laundry services and a chauffeur to collect the
client from the railway station or airport.
Mr Thorpe says he has beaten his own deadline for bringing his idea to the North East: “We originally expected to launch in Newcastle 12 months after Harrogate. We have a further 24 offers from an investor who has bought properties in the Mill. We hope to have 47 apartments by June-July time.”
The Newcastle show apartment is now open and three staff are working from SuperiorStay’s Quayside offices.
Aparthotels are fast becoming popular alternatives to traditional hotels in the UK, Europe and the US. Glasgow company the McKever Group opened two aparthotels in Newcastle city centre a year ago.
And Wearside developer Hackett Property opened the first in Sunderland last year in the restored Victorian Hawksley House, near the Museum and Winter Gardens
Thorpe will be talking about his experiences as a young entrepreneur at an event with Wyevale’s Sir Tom Hunter on March 12 at the Hilton Hotel in Gateshead.
PAGE TWO: A look back at the history of aparthotels.
