Premier Inn abandons plans for hotel on M&S site

Hotel chain Premier Inn has abandoned plans to build a hotel on the site of a former town centre Marks & Spencer (M&S) store.

Premier Inn owners Whitbread bought the site in Dorchester's South Street in 2023. It had fallen into disrepair following M&S's closure in 2020.

The firm said rising construction costs and increases in business rates for hotels meant the scheme was no longer viable.

A statement said: "After careful review, the company has concluded it can no longer progress the planned development and Whitbread intends to market the site for sale in the next few weeks."

Whitbread, which already has a Premier Inn in nearby Brewery Square, previously said the new 102-room hotel would bring £3m to the local economy.

A company spokesperson said: "Withdrawing from the development has not been an easy decision to take.

"However, as a publicly listed company, we must carefully assess where we invest, and unfortunately the South Street site is no longer viable for us to deliver."

Steve Bulley, president of Dorchester Chamber for Business, said the news had comes as "a shock" and "out of the blue".

Speaking to BBC Radio Solent's Dorset breakfast show, he said: "I think it's an opportunity for a rethink for that building and there may be an opportunity for it, once it's been sold, to be repurposed with some ground floor retail units... and potentially residential above.

"It's been empty for about six years, we want to see it repurposed and reused quickly."

The site is made up of two buildings - one was built in the 1930s to replace the previous M&S store.

The shop was later extended into the adjoining Victorian building in the 1960s.

During construction in 1936, workmen found what became known as the Dorchester Hoard - a cache of 22,000 Roman coins buried in the foundations of a Roman house.

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