Administrators put Liverpool’s Shankly Hotel up for sale

Administrators from Kroll (formerly Duff & Phelps) have engaged CBRE to market Signature Living’s famous Shankly Hotel in Liverpool for sale. The hotel, named after former Liverpool FC manager Bill Shankly, was one of a number of Signature Living hotels to enter administration last year amid the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.

A price for the 125-bedroom hotel has not been named, but when Signature last marketed the hotel for sale in 2019, it was looking for offers of around £40 million. With international travel being widely discouraged, the sale comes ahead of what is expected to be a booming summer for the UK’s “staycation” market.

The hotel’s 125 rooms are split between 57 hotel-style rooms and 68 apartment rooms, which feature kitchen facilities. Overall, the hotel can sleep close to 700 guests. The hotel also has a 111-space underground car park and a gym.

There is a rooftop bar with panoramic views across Liverpool, as well as the Bastion Bar & Restaurant, which generates much of the hotel’s revenue. There are two function and event rooms which can accommodate over 1,000 guests. Along with these existing features, the hotel also has considerable development potential.

Shaun Skidmore, Senior Director for Operational Real Estate at CBRE’s Manchester office, commented: "We are delighted to bring to market The Shankly Hotel at a time when the UK staycation market remains buoyant. Liverpool is the sixth most visited city in the UK with a strong performing hotel market, which benefits from a good mix of commercial and leisure demand.”

"There is pent up demand for this kind of hotel which can accommodate groups of people keen to unite when restrictions allow. While post-COVID domestic holidays continue to appeal to travellers, we expect the UK outlook in 2021 to remain strong with CBRE expecting the hotel sector to fully recover by 2024.”

“As such The Shankly Hotel represents an excellent opportunity for a keen investor to acquire a consistently high performing hotel with a national profile and a range of additional revenue streams and further development potential."

Joint administrator Michael Lennon of Kroll, added: “The Signature Shankly hotel is a quality venue, in an excellent location. Pre-pandemic, it would see around 700 people check in on a Friday night for a weekend experience and its unique offering to larger groups makes it a popular selection.”

"During the last 12 months, trading under the various pandemic restrictions has been strong, with a high number of bookings and demand for tickets to events the hotel has been able to host, in excess of the numbers allowed under the COVID reduced capacity. Everyone is confident that the hotel will return to pre-COVID levels of trade once the restrictions are lifted.”

Signature Living owner Lawrence Kenwright said: "For complete clarity, the Shankly Hotel’s current and future guests, as well as its suppliers and staff are not affected by this development, nor by the marketing of the hotel for sale. The administration relates to the bricks and mortar and not to operations.”

"We remain in positive and regular contact with our first charge lenders, our investors and the administrators regarding a Company Voluntary Arrangement process which is now well underway. The CVA process has the support of more than 95% of our unsecured creditors and would see us coming out of administration and re-acquiring the sites which have been affected by it.”


One of the best ways to find properties below market price is to look at recent administrations.

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