Member Article

Major investment nears completion as HQ opens

A Coventry-born success story is on course to complete the creation of a new student village for the city, ahead of the new academic year.

Study Inn, which is based in the city, provides high quality accommodation for students and at the same time brings tired buildings back to life and boosts the city centre economy.

It has also established its UK headquarters in Coventry and employs 65 staff in the city.

The transformation of the former AXA building in Well Street will bring the company’s total number of bedrooms in Coventry to 684 in seven city centre locations. It also has centres in Nottingham and Sheffield and is rolling the concept out across the country.

Councillor Ann Lucas, leader of Coventry City Council, has been given a guided tour of the new development and the Study Inn headquarters in Corporation Street.

She said: “It is really encouraging to see what Study Inn have created and the impact it is having on the city centre. Buildings which have outlived their use as offices have been transformed and offer hotel-standard accommodation for students.

“It gives those students, many of them visiting the UK for the first time, a very good experience and a positive impression of the city. Many of them will work across the globe and they hopefully will leave here with only good things to say about Coventry.

“The fact that the idea was born here in the city and is proving so successful is doubly rewarding.”

Study Inn will be a part of the Coventry and Warwickshire MIPIM Partnership at the largest commercial property show in the world, when private sector companies help promote the city and the county to developers and investors.

Director Kieran Leahy, who was born in Willenhall, said: “We created and developed the Study Inn concept in Coventry and have continued with that commitment to the city.

“The Well Street project will complete our new student village concept, which has already attracted international attention.

“The regeneration of this building is well ahead of programme and it will be open in September 2015 as planned. Its completion will bring our total investment in Coventry to £35 million and will bring a £10 million spend into the city centre on an annual basis.

“Both of the city’s universities are continually increasing their status in the UK and world rankings for their educational excellence and are attracting increasing numbers of international undergraduate and postgraduate students, which in turn puts the city on the international map.

“The universities’ drive for excellence is complemented by our objective of being the best private student accommodation provider in the UK and the councils’ ambitions for graduate retention to keep skills in the region to fuel the expansion of local business.

“As well as returning buildings to an active economic use and helping drive footfall in the city, providing well-managed, purpose-built accommodation in the city centre also reduces reliance on multiple occupancy of suburban housing which is again something which appeals to authorities.”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Matt Joyce .