Owners of the Liverpool city centre boutique hotel, which only opened in late 2019, say the COVID-19 pandemic has led to a ‘re-evaluation’ of its business. Tony McDonough reports

Owners of a Liverpool city centre hotel are looking to sell up little more than a year after opening with the business being hit by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Urbanista in Bold Street was developed by Liverpool-based Evolve Property Group back and opened to guests in late 2019. However, in March the first lockdown hit the hospitality sector hard and the hotel has now been put on the market for £1.5m.

Operated by Voya Hotels, Urbanista is a boutique hotel offering 17 different rooms varying in size and capacity sleeping up to 58 people at any one time. Evolve also created a top floor events space.

Following the initial COVID lockdown, which began in late March, Evolve worked to get the hotel ready to operate within COVID restrictions in July. The events space proved popular and a number of parties were able to go ahead sticking to the guidelines which allowed 30 people in at once.

This was then reduced to 15 and then Liverpool was placed under Tier 3 restriction, which prohibited any gatherings other than weddings and funerals. Following the imposition of the third national lockdown, Evolve has decided to sell up. The company says the current circumstances have forced it to “re-evaluate its operational and development criteria”.

David Colebourn, owner of Urbanista Hotel, said: “The pandemic has created unprecedented times and as a result, we’ve made the decision to restructure the business. We’re really proud of how we’ve transformed the building to create Urbanista and its interior reflects the vibrant hotel that it is, including the new top floor private events space.”

The hotel has double and quad rooms as well as larger suites including the Wild Corner and Secret Garden suites that are both favourites with guests. They come complete with private outdoor courtyards that are packed with flower walls, murals by local artist Jazz Stan as well as a swinging egg chair and bar area.

The hotel has been placed on the market with Christie & Co and offers are welcome by January 29, 2021.