Actor Robert De Niro is part of a group that plans to build
a boutique hotel in London’s Covent Garden district.
The group, which includes and New York-based BD Hotels and U.K.
developer Capital & Counties Properties, has submitted a planning
application to the Westminster City Council for an 83-room hotel called the
Wellington. It is slated to break ground next year and open in 2019.
The Wellington will be made up of six adjacent buildings that
will retain their historic facades. It will have two restaurants, a spa and a
so-called “members club” that will surround a central courtyard.
De Niro and BD Hotels have previously partnered on the
88-room Greenwich Hotel in New York’s Tribeca district.
Additionally, De Niro works with chef Nobu Matsuhisa at the
Nobu Hospitality Group, which has hotels in Las Vegas, Miami Beach and Manila.
The actor is also part of a group that in late 2014 signed
an agreement with the government of Antigua and Barbuda to invest $250 million
in the K Club, an abandoned resort on Barbuda that has been closed since 2004.