BT Tower to become a hotel
The business news that matters
Hello and welcome to the latest edition of Off to Lunch…
The BT Tower, one of the most eye-catching structures in the UK, is to become a hotel after it was sold by BT for £275 million.
BT announced the deal in a stock market statement this morning. The tower has been bought by MCR Hotels, an American hotel group whose other sites include the High Line Hotel in New York and the Sheraton hotel in Times Square in the same city.
MCR is going to work with architect Thomas Heatherwick to develop the new hotel. Heatherwick also designed the cauldron for the Olympic flame for London 2012.
The hotel will not open for years because BT has to vacate the tower and remove its technical equipment before any construction work can begin.
The tower was opened in 1965. It was previously known as the Post Office Tower, amongst other names, and used to have a rotating restaurant at the top called Top of the Tower that was operated by Butlins. You can see the restaurant in the video below from British Pathe…
The tower closed to the public in 1971. BT has controlled the tower since 1984 and still uses it for events. BT also uses the screen on the outside of the tower to advertise or promote messages.
BT said it was selling the tower because it is no longer needed to distribute telecommunications signals or live television. Microwave aerials were taken off the tower more than 10 years ago and BT can now use its fixed and mobile networks across the country to distribute signals.
The BT Tower is 177 metres or 581-feet high and the property also includes a block at street level. It was the tallest structure in London when it opened in the 1960s.
Brent Mathews, property director of BT, said:
“The BT Tower sits at the heart of London and we’ve been immensely proud to be the owners of this important landmark since 1984. It’s played a vital role in carrying the nation’s calls, messages and TV signals, but increasingly we’re delivering content and communication via other means. This deal with MCR will enable BT Tower to take on a new purpose, preserving this iconic building for decades to come.”
Tyler Morse, the chief executive and owner of MCR Hotels, said:
"We are proud to preserve this beloved building and will work to develop proposals to tell its story as an iconic hotel, opening its doors for generations to enjoy."
The news has made the front page of the Evening Standard in London…
The deal represents a vote of confidence in the UK from international investors. However, this is also a story about how businesses - and in this case a building - can evolve…
Other stories that matter…
1. The UK’s public finances enjoyed a record surplus of £16.7 billion in January, according to official figures. This is the largest since records began in 1993. The UK’s public finances are usually strong in January because tax payments come in from self-assessments. Economists had actually forecast that the surplus could be more than £18 billion, so this is slightly lower than anticipated. You can find the ONS data here Jeremy Hunt will have up to £23 billion of headroom to make tax cuts in the Budget next month but households and businesses face “a tax sandwich” because any cuts will have to be followed by tax rises later, according to a new report by the Resolution Foundation. You can find the Resolution report here and a news story here
2. Body Shops around the UK have started closing. Up to half of The Body Shop’s 198 stores in the UK are to close from this week after the retailer fell into administration. Story by the BBC here
3. The venture capital firm Sequoia Capital has withdrawn efforts to oust Sir Michael Moritz, a former partner at the business, as chairman of Klarna. Sequoia partner Matthew Miller will leave the board of Klarna instead. Klarna, the buy-now-pay-later, provider, is working on a stock market flotation that could involve listing in London. This story was initially reported by The Information here
4. The Financial Times has an interesting piece on how the UK businesses trialling a four-day working week are finding it. Some of the businesses are using the fifth day of the week as an “on-call day”, where staff can dip into work if necessary. Daryl Hine, chief operating officer at Stellar Asset Management, is quoted as saying: “The key learning is about the importance of flexibility from staff. It’s how we deal with surges in work, and urgent items that come along.” You can read the piece in full here
5. Insead, the business school, has published research about why Chinese electric car makers like BYD have been able to scale-up their operations so quickly. BYD sold more electric vehicles than Tesla in the final quarter of 2023. Chengyi Lin, a professor of strategy at Insead, writes that the companies have benefitted from the work they did in adjacent industries, such as electric buses and motorcycles, and collaborating with other companies on developing key technologies, such as the battery. You can read more here
Podcast…
The latest episode of our Business Leader podcast looks at the story behind how Simon Arora and his brothers Bobby and Robin turned B&M from a small discount chain in the north of England into one of the biggest retailers in the UK. In part one, we speak to Simon Arora about how he found B&M, the strategy behind building the business, and how it nearly all ended after less than a year.
You can listen to the episode via Substack here, Spotify here or Apple here
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Best
Graham