The BT Tower, pictured on October 24, 2023 in London, England.
Matt Cardy | Getty Images News | Getty Images
LONDON — British telecoms group BT said Wednesday it had agreed to sell London’s iconic BT Tower — once a crucial piece of network infrastructure — to developer MCR Hotels for £275 million ($346.6 million).
The 189-meter (620-foot) structure has loomed over the capital city’s central Fitzrovia neighborhood since 1965, when it opened because the Post Office Tower.
It carried telecommunications signals from London to the remaining of the country, but its microwave aerials were made redundant greater than a decade ago by the transition to fixed and mobile networks.
The tower was also known for a revolving restaurant on its thirty fourth floor, which took 22 minutes to finish a rotation.
Now, it is ready to turn out to be the newest London landmark converted right into a hotel, joining the likes of the Old War Office and the previous Metropolitan Police Headquarters.
U.S. development giant MCR owns and operates 150 properties, including the TWA Hotel situated in the previous TWA Flight Center at Recent York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport.
Tyler Morse, CEO of MCR Hotels, said the group would “preserve this beloved constructing and can work to develop proposals to inform its story as an iconic hotel.”
BT, the U.K.’s largest broadband and mobile services provider, is undergoing a large cost-cutting program that may slash as much as 55,000 jobs by 2030.