by Marianne Flood

Demolition work has begun on a landmark building in the Strand Road to make way for a 116 room hotel which is expected to open next summer.

The three star Holiday Inn Express will be stand at former site of the Strand Bar and Flamin’ Jacks restaurant at 29-35 Strand Road and 6a and Great James Street, and will create 47 new jobs once completed.

It will also boast a Marco Pierre New York Italian Restaurant, two meeting rooms and three retail units and will provide accommodation for up to 40,000 visitors a year.

Planning permission had been granted to the Duddy Group in April 2011 to construct the hotel and it was reported in April 2013 that a Holiday Inn Express would be opened at the premises.

Invest NI had offered £724,000 of support to the project, while the Department for Communities (DfC) offered a further £475,000 from its Urban Development Grant.

The project has also secured £1million of mezzanine funding from Whiterock Capital through Invest NI’s Access to Finance strategy.

Speaking to the Derry News yesterday, Brendan Duddy of the Duddy Group who are behind the venture said it was hoped the new hotel would be operation by late summer 2018.

“The old building is currently being demolished, as people can see,” he commented.

“The hotel will open next year in late summer or early autumn in a whole new building.

“This is a good news story for the city.”

Speaking following the funding announcement in March of this year, Invest Northern Ireland’s Chief Executive Alastair Hamilton said: “This new hotel will address a gap in provision of budget hotel accommodation in Derr by offering a three-star quality option for visitors.

“The economic benefit also includes the creation of 47 jobs as well as employment generated during the construction phase and the ongoing benefit to the local supply chain through the purchasing of consumables for use in the hotel.

“The addition of this internationally acknowledged brand will underline the city’s position as a quality destination and will contribute to achieving government’s targets to grow tourism revenues to £1 billion and visitor numbers to 4.5 million by 2020.”

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