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Kevin Gilhooly, General Manager, tells bdaily why Canadian company Sandman has put its faith in Newcastle for its first UK hotel

When the Sandman Hotel Group announced it was taking over the former Scottish and Newcastle brewery building opposite St James’ Park I’m sure there was some curiosity locally about who we were and what we might do to the much-loved building.

In fact, the Sandman Hotel Group was founded in 1967 – co-incidentally just two years after the opening of the Scottish and Newcastle building – and has been expanding ever since. It now has more than 40 hotels, resorts and inns in Canada and more hotel rooms in Vancouver than either Hilton or Marriott, so I think it’s fair to say we’re not exactly new to the business.

As for what we have done to the building, the reaction so far has been very encouraging – of the way we’ve worked within the existing framework and our desire to celebrate its past rather than disregard it.

The Sandman Signature Hotel Newcastle isn’t just the group’s first hotel in the UK but its first outside Canada, which gives some indication of the high regard in which we hold the city.

We chose Newcastle for several reasons, not least for this fabulous site in the heart of the city. We were also really impressed by its position as the foremost city of the North East and its excellent transport links within the UK and abroad.

It also struck us as a forward-thinking city, which treasures its heritage while looking continually to the future. It has a dynamism we noticed very early on and the people who live here have a warmth and friendliness we’d heard about and have been delighted to witness for ourselves.

Our staff are proof of our faith in the legendary Geordie cheerfulness – they have a strong work ethic but, equally importantly, they are friendly, welcoming and helpful – which our guests, many of whom are corporate and have endured long journeys to get here, really appreciate.

From the start, we wanted the hotel to have strong, local identity - we didn’t want it to be a characterless, anonymous venue.

To that end our design director spent a lot of time here and she has combined state-of-the-art lighting and electronics in our 175 bedrooms with strong images of iconic Tyneside landmarks such as the Tyne Bridge and St James’ Park.

All our bedrooms have microwaves and fridges and we’ve used lots of glass, carefully positioned mirrors and large windows to make the most of the light and the excellent views. Work is already underway, too, to create penthouse suites and a fitness centre on the uppermost floor where the view is incredible.

Even the colour scheme has been picked with Newcastle in mind – monochrome black, grey and white with accents of cobalt blue to reflect the Tyne itself.

When we were renovating the building we came across a foundation stone commemorating the cutting of the first turf on March 2 1964 by Col. J H Porter, the man who created Newcastle Brown Ale back in 1925. So, when we came to officially open our hotel to the public, we decided to forego the customary Champagne and, instead, our staff, management and guests raised a glass of “broon” in tribute.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Jonny Marshall .