A Soho site that has been largely undeveloped since it was bombed in the Blitz is to be turned into a luxury £90m hotel, with housing, by Firmdale Hotels, the boutique hotel operator.

Firmdale will announce today that it has acquired the site — Ham Yard, a three quarters of an acre freehold site just off Regent Street, for £30m.

It plans to spend up to £60m building a 100-room hotel plus 50,000 sq ft of housing, a third of it affordable accommodation.

The couple, who are about to open Firmdale’s first property in New York, are planning to fund the Ham Yard project by raising £56 million from a sale and leaseback of two of their six London hotels, the Knightsbridge Hotel and Number 16 in Kensington. They have been approached by a German investment fund that is keen to buy the two freeholds.

The Times