FAQs

What is being proposed?

Marick is proposing a 145 room premium Brand Wilde Aparthotel and 400m2 community use space.

Who is the Developer?

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/.

What is Marick’s Role?

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

How were Marick selected?

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.

How did you consult on these proposals?

In line with Marick’s commitment to community engagement, a hybrid two-phase approach to consultation was undertaken.

The first phase included a series of one-to-one meetings offered to key stakeholders in advance of the wider community engagement, to provide an early opportunity to view the proposals, provide their feedback to the team and ask questions. The project team hired a street stall at Gloucester Green market for three days in April 2024 to soft launch the proposals, speak with people about the principle of the development and provide initial feedback. The street stalls were advertised via a social media advert as well as via Makespace’s community channels.

The second phase comprised both virtual and in-person engagement. Marick ran a virtual public consultation on the project website from 15 May 2024 to 29 May 2024, as well as holding an in-person consultation event on 15 May at the Old Fire Station, 40 George Street, Oxford, OX1 2AQ, where local residents, businesses and stakeholders were invited to attend to view and comment on the proposals.

The consultation was advertised via a 2-page flyer that was delivered to 1,167 residential and business address surrounding the site, providing an overview of the proposals and inviting local residents to take part. Key stakeholders received an email directly inviting them to take part in the consultation and attend the event. The virtual consultation and in-person event were advertised via social media adverts and details of the consultation were also included in Oxford City Council’s Monthly ‘Oxford City Update’ business newsletter.

Need for redevelopment – why is this site being redeveloped?

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.

Why are you demolishing the building?

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.

Who is moving into the new building?

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.

Is there a need for more hotel space in Oxford?

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.

Who is Staycity and what do they do?

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.

Who and what are Makespace Oxford?

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/

What activities will take place in the community space?

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/.

Residential and local amenity

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. Any licences will be dealt with separately from planning.

 

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.  The servicing and waste management plan has been included in the planning application.

Transport

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. A draft travel plan has been included in the application.

 

Cycle Provision

The proposals will provide cycle parking to comply with Local Planning Policy. Indeed Marick’s proposals exceed policy with a total of 24 cycle spaces, net, being proposed.

 

Transport and Travel

A transport assessment and travel plan have been submitted with the application, which 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) has been developed, through discussions with the council and other stakeholders, and issued with the application which will consider traffic management, logistics and welfare, during construction.

 

Taxis

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

What are the alternative cinemas in the local area?

There are four cinemas located in central Oxford and the surrounding local area that could be used as an alternative to the Odeon cinema currently located at the
38-40 George Street site:

  • Curzon Oxford: Westgate Shopping Centre, Oxford OX1 1NZ
  • Phoenix Picturehouse: 57 Walton St, Oxford OX2 6AE
  • The Ultimate Picture Palace: Jeune St, Cowley Rd, Oxford OX4 1BN
  • Vue Cinema: Ozone Leisure Park, Littlemore, Oxford OX4 4XP