WORK on York's first aparthotel starts next week, giving a major boost to tourism and creating up to 60 permanent new jobs.

The Staycity complex will feature 197 serviced apartments with fully equipped kitchens and dining rooms/lounges, with two retail units on the ground floor.

The six-storey building will be built next to York Barbican and overlooking the Bar Walls, on the site of the former swimming pool, which closed more than a decade ago and was demolished in 2007.

Tourism organisation Visit York said the facilities offered should help it promote York to the family market, which was looking for high quality as well as good value for money.

"Staying in an aparthotel is becoming an increasingly popular way for families to experience cities," said the organisation's head, Kate McMullen.

"This will appeal too to conference organisers, especially those booking events at the York Barbican."

Dublin-based Staycity said it aimed to provide a mid-market, cost effective and user-friendly alternative to standard hotel rooms in popular European cities, with its properties occupying a niche that appealed particularly to families and small groups travelling together.

Chief executive Tom Walsh said: "York is a fantastic location for Staycity, with around seven million visitors a year attracted to the stunning walled city by attractions, such as York Minster, the National Railway Museum and the Castle Museum, as well as a wide variety of cultural events.

“It’s an exciting prospect to take the serviced apartment concept to York, which also boasts a strong demand from the corporate market, with a number of large conferences and meetings staged each year at the York Barbican.”

A spokeswoman for the main contractors, Bowmer & Kirkland, said up to 150 people will be working on the construction project, adding: "We endeavour to employ as many local/regional contractors as possible on all our sites."

The development comes just months after an independent report , commissioned by City of York Council, raised concerns about the increase in the number of budget hotels in the city and called for more "high-end" accommodation to be provided to increase visitor spend.

Concerns were raised in 2007 about plans to make the hotel bigger than had first been proposed, raising it to six storeys on a site which is just across the road from the Bar Walls, with local councillor Dave Taylor saying it was too high.

While the charges for a stay at York's Staycity are not yet known, prices for a night for up to three people in a one bedroom apartment at a Staycity complex in Birmingham start from about £105. The company said Aparthotels usually cost less per person than an average hotel room, particularly for families or small groups.

York is joining Dublin, Birmingham, Edinburgh, Liverpool, London Greenwich, London Heathrow,

Manchester, Paris and Amsterdam in hosting a Staycity aparthotel, with other new sites in the pipeline including ones in Lyon, Nice, Milan and Paris.

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