Preston's 140-room Premier Inn hotel put up for sale for £8.7 million

Owners Kames Capital – part of Aegon Asset Management – are seeking to offload the seven-storey building at the junction of Ringway and Fox Street, which was built in 2010.

But any sale is unlikely to affect the ongoing operation of the city centre hotel. Premier Inn has a 25-year lease on the building – signed in 2011 and due to expire in 2036 – and this would continue under a new landlord.

However, Premier Inn reportedly has a lease break option in 2031, when the hotel chain will have the opportunity to either renegotiate the terms of its lease or end it altogether.

According to real estate firm CRBE, who have been instructed to find a buyer for the building, the Premier Inn’s lease accounts for 91% of the property’s total income.

Ground floor units occupied by German Doner Kebab, Kaspa’s Desserts and clothing retailer Hollywood Exports make up the other 9%.

The building recently had work undertaken on its exterior cladding. Some old panels were replaced and new fire-proof materials added, whilst lime staining on its brickwork was removed.

The owners said the improvements were not due to safety concerns following the Grenfell Tower disaster. Instead, it said it was simply making improvements as a “proactive landlord.”

Before work commenced, a spokesman for Kames Income Property Fund said: “The Premier Inn building received full building regulations approval when it was built but we are bringing it in line with the new standards.

“As proactive landlords, we recognise that there are always improvements which can be made."