A Prestwick-based restaurant owner has secured £1.14m in funding to transform space above their restaurant into a four-star boutique hotel.
The funding, provided by Reward Funding, will help develop 3,875 square foot property into a 10-bedroom luxury hotel.
The newly opened DeiRa Hotel & Apartments aim to meet the rising demand for quality accommodation stemming from golf tourism, a sector worth £40m annually to the Ayrshire economy.
Perry Uppal (pictured, centre right) , director of R&J Uppal Holdings Ltd, which runs the restaurant, said: “We recognised that expanding our existing restaurant business – by creating a new luxury boutique hotel – would enable us to drive further business growth and capitalise on the lucrative golf tourism industry across the Ayrshire coast.”
Uppal added: “We’d struggled to secure funding through banks, which meant seizing this market opportunity would only be made possible if we could move quickly and find an alternative lender that understand our vision for the business and could deliver a tailored solution.
“The team at Reward have gone above and beyond to provide working capital at a pace needed to meet construction deadlines, minimise disruption to our restaurant business and open before the end of the golf tourism season.”
Lucie Martin (pictured, right) , business development director for Reward Funding in Scotland, said: “We are seeing a significant increase in Scottish property investors and businesses approaching us because they have been unsuccessful in securing finance from traditional funders.
“Our purpose is to fill the void left by banks and offer an alternative solution which unlocks business growth opportunities for companies across a range of sectors.
“This also plays a wider role in ensuring the Scottish economy doesn’t stand still or even retract due to a shortage of finance.
“It’s been a pleasure working with Perry to provide the funding as a catalyst for future business growth and we look forward to supporting them every step of the way.”
