Pictured above: CGI of new hotel development proposed for Bath

Stratford-upon-Avon-based Lodders Solicitors is advising  MDN Properties and its consultants MacMullen Associates on a major hotel development in Bath for Premier Inn, part of leisure giant Whitbread PLC .

A planning application for the £10 million project, which would create around 50 jobs, has been submitted to Bath and North East Somerset Council.

MDN Properties with Premier, aims to demolish retail units at the corner of James Street West and Kingsmead North and build a 107 bedroom Premier Inn with coffee shop and restaurant to replace what Premier Inn calls "utilitarian buildings" put up in the 1950s after the area was flattened in the wartime Bath Blitz.

Alastair Frew, real estate partner at Lodders, said: "Development in Bath is always sensitive in view of its architectural heritage, but everyone is very confident this will come to fruition.

"We have been involved in preparing conditional agreements with the landowners and Premier Inn. It is a very exciting scheme and has required a high degree of co-ordination between two landowners, developer and occupier."

David MacMullen, who is acting as planning consultant and project co-ordinator, said: "Bath is a difficult place to plan new buildings because the city is so important historically and it can take several years to find a site and develop a design which is acceptable to English Heritage. 

"I believe we have created something truly outstanding.  Premier Inn is a great brand and the hotel will be a real asset for Bath."

Nick Norbury a director of Halesowen-based MDN Properties said: "We felt that a modern building which respects the architectural proportions of Georgian Bath and is constructed from familiar Bath stone would add quality and vitality to the street scene.

"We took advice from English Heritage, the Commission for the Built Environment - who both thought the site would be enhanced by our proposed scheme - and had extensive discussions with the council's experts in planning, historic buildings and conservation. 

"This design, by award-winning architect WCEC, has evolved over a long period and we feel it will be a worthy addition to the city in keeping with its world heritage and conservation area status."

Premier Inn, which is Britain's biggest hotel operator with more than 580 hotels, has been working with MDN Properties to find a suitable site in the centre of Bath for some time.

If it gets planning permission, the building work would finish by Christmas 2012 and the hotel would open in early 2013.

For more information about Lodders, please visit their website here: www.lodders.co.uk