Marick is proposing a premium Brand Wilde Aparthotel and community space. The hotel will have up to 145 rooms.

Marick Real Estate Ltd

Marick is an experienced property development company with a proven track record in the accommodation and commercial property sectors, having completed many successful projects across the UK.
Marick has strong relationships with key groups across the development spectrum, including accommodation operators, contractors, and specialist manufacturers. We believe in robust control of the development management process from inception to completion to create real value and sustainable developments. This attitude has seen us lead the way too many industry innovations that are now standard practice.

For more information visit our website: https://www.marickrealestate.com/.

Marick’s role and responsibilities as the developer includes, but is not limited to:

• Securing planning consent with a number of third party agreements to conclude
• Procuring the professional and advisory team including designers and specialists
• Overseeing the design and procurement of the entire development (including the constructor)
• Leasing negotiation for the aparthotel and community use space, procuring these parties as development partners
• Meeting stringent timelines for construction
• Quality management and monitoring of construction and standards
• Managing cashflow

Through Oxford City Council Public Procurement tendering process. Marick achieved the highest score in the Public Procurement tender. This was signed off by the City Council’s Cabinet in July 2023.

Oxford City Council (“the Council”) has a legal obligation to meet best consideration and generate revenue to safeguard public services, this site has been brought forward for redevelopment as the Council is seeking to bring new life to their city centre site, through the redevelopment and repurposing of the site, which is situated in a prime location and is of key strategic importance to the Council and the local area.

The Council’s vision is for the site to be redeveloped or repurposed, following vacant possession, and deliver an active and vibrant scheme that secures the Council a long-term revenue stream and delivers regeneration benefits to the local area. The scheme should provide greater activation at ground floor and connectivity to the fabric of George Street and Gloucester Green, generating employment opportunities and contributing towards a sustainable city centre ecosystem.

We have explored the reuse and retrofit of the building but given its construction type and lack of windows / penetrations, the form of construction, the existing layout of the theatres this was not possible for re-use. The existing building also has a very blank and harsh exterior, providing a poor relationship with the surrounding buildings and public realm and Gloucester Green market square. The existing building provides no visibility through the site and limited architectural and heritage interest. Little to none of the original building interiors survived the fire in 1963.

Our proposed redevelopment will provide a much higher quality building, with a good lifespan, it will be much more energy efficient and embodied carbon will be minimised as much as possible. The new building will contribute to a much more active and vibrant local ecosystem and will enable much activation along the exterior of the building including greater connectivity with Gloucester Green.

Staycity as the ‘head tenant’ taking the whole building as aparthotel operator and Makespace Oxford sub-leasing approximately half of the ground floor for community use space.

Oxford City Council’s City Centre Action Plan aims to encourage more hotels to open in Oxford city centre to boost the city centre’s economy. A 2015 report from Experience Oxfordshire found that those staying overnight spent, on average, about 1.5 times more than those on day trips. However, the report found that only 17% of the 6.6m who visited Oxford each year stayed overnight, with 83% of visitors being day trippers.

The proposed new aparthotel would be perfectly placed in George Street, with easy access to the city centre’s shops, restaurants, bars and theatres. Aparthotels offer the freedom and flexibility of staying in premium accommodation, without losing Oxford’s much-needed homes to short-term lets.” A hotel with this many rooms in this space is likely to drive more audiences to the cultural venues in the city.

Staycity Group is an award-winning, Dublin-based company, which started with just one aparthotel in 2004 and has grown to become one of Europe’s leading aparthotel operators with an estate of nearly 6,000 apartments across 32 locations including: Berlin, Birmingham, Bordeaux, Dublin, Edinburgh, Frankfurt, Heidelberg, Liverpool, London, Manchester, Marseille, Paris and Venice. Further expansion will see Staycity operate over 15,000 apartments by 2028. Staycity operates under the Staycity Aparthotels and its premium Wilde Aparthotels brands. The self-catering aparthotels have 24-hour reception and most have a Staycafé selling drinks, snacks and breakfasts as well as facilities such as a gym, laundry and guest lounge. The aparthotel is expected to appeal to both leisure and business travellers.

Staycity ‘Wilde’ weblink here: https://www.staycity.com/wilde.

Makespace Oxford is a locally rooted Community Interest Company that provides affordable, community-led work, meeting, events and organising spaces across Oxfordshire. They revive and reanimate underused buildings into places that nurture connection and support between organisations with a commitment to positive cultural, social and environmental impact. In the last 5 years, Makespace Oxford has supported over 150 organisations into affordable space and reanimated 30 buildings across Oxfordshire, including multi-resident work and community hubs in Wantage, Didcot, Abingdon and Oxford city centre.

Website is here: https://makespaceoxford.org/.

This will be determined through engagement and consultation with local residents, other local community businesses and the wider Oxford community.

Makespace want to ensure we add to the vibrant cultural and community offer in the area, complementing and working with, rather than competing with the vibrant neighbouring market square, Crisis Skylight and the Old Fire Station and the current Fusion Arts led pop-up exhibition space. These operate alongside many other valuable independent local businesses.

Makespace want to create a space that is genuinely accessible, welcoming and useful to all ages and a wide range of groups and interests.

For more information please follow this link: https://makespaceoxford.org/george-street/.

As a resident / owner of a nearby property what will the effects during construction be?

Throughout the design process, impacts on surrounding residents are / will be taken account of to minimise disruption to residential amenity. A Construction Logistics Management Plan will address many of these concerns as part of the planning submission.

Will the Aparthotel or Community space have an alcohol licence, and will it be noisy?  

The premises will be subject to licencing application and restrictions and will be managed by Staycity for the Aparthotel and Makespace for the Community space.

What will the noise and air quality impact of the hotel be?

A noise and air quality report is being submitted alongside the planning application.

Will I have noisy bin lorries early in the morning by the hotel entrance?

Deliveries are likely to be controlled by planning conditions, by OCC as part of the planning process.

Will users be able to park on site? 

There will be no parking provision for any of the building occupants, users or staff.

Sustainable transport

The site has great transport connections with close proximity to the bus station and, train station. A construction and hotel travel plan will be developed with a focus on using local public transport links.  

Cycle Provision

The proposals will provide cycle parking to comply with Local Planning Policy.

Transport and Travel

A Transport Assessment and travel plan will be submitted with the application, which will fully assess the surrounding highway network and impact of the scheme.

How will you minimise the impact to traffic during construction?

A Construction Environmental and Logistics Management Plan (CELMP) will be developed and issued with the application which will consider traffic management.

Taxis

It is not proposed that these proposals will have an impact on the existing taxi rank. Construction logistics is being developed with the Council to minimise disruption as much as possible.