THE contractors chosen by Bournemouth council to deliver its hotel have a string of projects behind them.

Mill Lane Estates of Manchester and Marick Real Estate of Woking were appointed after Bournemouth council took over the planned hotel near the BIC, having rejected all the tenders from the private sector.

Mill Lane Estates has been involved in projects at the Hilton Leeds Executive Lounge; the Hilton Leeds Highline Bar; and the re-development of the former Chesterfield Football Stadium for housing.

Together with Marick Real Estate and the Topland Group, it delivered a 220-bed Express By Holiday Inn at Manchester’s Trafford Park. The same partners also developed a £35million Hampton by Hilton at London’s Dockside, near the Excel exhibition and convention centres.

It says it has “successfully developed sites in the hotel, residential, healthcare and leisure sectors”, adding that “we have experience of all types of development opportunities and we know what works where”.

Marick Real Estate describes itself as “best-in-class across the property lifecycle”. As well as various industrial and commercial schemes, it has also been involved in a £10m, 80-bedroom Travelodge over the existing Stockley Park arena, Heathrow. It is the regulated operator for the Shepperton Studios Property Partnership.

The council could still potentially be subject to a challenge by other potential bidders.

At the start of the month the borough issued a legal notice announcing its plan for the "£64 million procurement".

The VEAT (voluntary ex ante transparency) notice, published on April 6, is an EU instrument which grants firms a 10-15 day window to mount a legal challenge to a public sector procurement.

Supposedly, if a challenge is mounted after this time the courts will be reluctant to rescind the contract. This maximum deadline would expire on Saturday this week.

VEAT notices are typically used where a public body has decided to award a contract to a firm which it believes is the only viable provider of a particular service.

Normally councils are required to invite tender submissions from firms on the open market.

Industry critics claim that when Bournemouth council decided to fully-fund the BIC hotel scheme it picked its development partner from among three bidders previously deemed non-compliant.

They say it should have re-tendered to the wider hotel development market.