A hotel company which is converting a Bradford building into a ‘boutique’ student flat development has baffled a senior councillor by advertising it to investors as being “on the doorstep of Salford Quays”.
Essex-based Trivelles Hotels and Resorts, which bought Joseph Brennan House on Sunbridge Road for £1.2 million in August, says Bradford has a “feel associated with the London docklands” in an online brochure.
The document about the development, which has been renamed Sunbridge House, says: “With the unique Salford Quays right on their doorstep, Bradford has a feel associated with the London Docklands; luxury, professionalism and exclusivity.
“Anyone living or working in this area will feel proud to be associated with the excitement that Salford Quays has on offer.”
But Councillor Susan Hinchcliffe, Bradford Council’s member of leisure, said the city had plenty of attractions and selling points itself.
“There are loads of things to do in the Bradford district – without resorting to Salford,” she said.
“There’s Haworth, where I was last weekend – walking along Main Street in the sunshine I felt like I was holiday. There’s Ilkley, the National Media Museum, which pulls in thousands of visitors, as well as City Park.
“I do talk to people in London and elsewhere in the country and some of them don’t know how far we are from Leeds or Manchester or where West Yorkshire is.
“They should come and see Bradford for themselves. The only connection I can think of between Bradford and Salford is a BBC Bollywood Live production in City Park on June 9 – because the BBC is now based at Salford!”
A spokesman at Trivelles said the reference to Salford Quays in its brochure would be corrected as “it is essentially not near Sunbridge House itself”.
A website also lists National Media Museum, Salts Mill and Bradford City Football Club as other attractions close to the development.
The spokesman confirmed there would be 113 flats and expects it to open in time for the next University of Bradford student intake in September.
Bradford Council last week granted planning permission to turn the six-storey building, which was once let by the NHS and Provident, into student flats.
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