Whitbread has acquired a site on Glasgow's West Nile Street for the development of its latest Premier Inn hotel in Scotland.

The agreement with ING will see a vacant former office block converted into budget hotel accommodation in a deal worth around £10.5m. It will be the first office-block-to-hotel conversion project in Scotland to benefit from the Business Premises Renovation Allowances Scheme, a Government initiative designed to encourage the conversion and renovation of empty properties in key areas. The 210-room hotel is expected to create approximately 50 local jobs when it opens.

Whitbread currently has plans for nine new Premier Inns and restaurants for Scotland, representing an investment of more than £42.65m and the creation of approximately 420 jobs. Once operational, these locations will increase the total number of Premier Inns in Scotland from 53 to 62. The nine sites, currently either under construction or in the process of development, will be opening on a phased basis from autumn 2010 and spring 2012 and include 31- and 76-room Premier Inns in Falkirk and Loch Ness House, Inverness respectively, both with a Beefeater restaurant; a 40-room Premier Inn and Table Table restaurant in Dalkeith; and a 60-room Premier Inn with Brewers Fayre restaurant in Dumbarton.

Elsewhere, Premier Inns are scheduled to open in Princes Street, Edinburgh (97 rooms); Edinburgh Airport (119 rooms); West Nile Street, Glasgow (210 rooms); Huntley Street, Inverness (100 rooms); and Edinburgh Park, West Edinburgh (120 rooms), all of them featuring integrated restaurants. The Edinburgh Park property will also include a Costa Coffee outlet. The sites include a mix of different ownership and development models and include freehold own build sites as well as developer 'turn key' deals.