British Telecom Tower taken on October 24, 2023 in London, England.
Matt Cady | Getty Images News | Getty Images
LONDON – British telecoms group BT said on Wednesday it had agreed to sell London’s iconic BT Tower, once a key component of network infrastructure, to developer MCR Hotels for 275 million pounds ($346.6 million).
The 189-meter (620-foot) building has towered over the capital’s central Fitzrovia neighborhood since it opened as a post office building in 1965.
It carries telecommunications signals from London to the rest of the country, but its microwave antennas were made redundant by the transition to fixed and mobile networks more than a decade ago.
The tower is also famous for its 34-story revolving restaurant, which takes 22 minutes to complete one rotation.
Now it will become London’s latest landmark to be converted into a hotel, joining the ranks of buildings such as the old War Office and the former Metropolitan Police headquarters.
US development giant MCR owns and operates 150 properties, including the TWA Hotel at the former TWA Flight Center at New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport.
MCR Hotels CEO Tyler Morse said the group will “preserve this beloved building and will work to develop proposals that tell its story as an iconic hotel.”
BT, the UK’s largest provider of broadband and mobile services, is embarking on a massive cost-cutting program that will see up to 55,000 jobs cut by 2030.
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