SH Hotels & Resorts has revealed it will take its Treehouse boutique hotel brand outside London in 2023, when it opens its second UK site in Manchester, as part of a nationwide rollout.

Speaking to HCM the company revealed plans to create a new-concept gym for the hotel – the first of its kind – with custom-designed space hoppers and other novel workout concepts as part of a playful new approach to exercise.

A representative of Treehouse told HCM that full details of the gym concept will be finalised in the next 9-12 months.

The Manchester location will be the first property to have a gym. At its London hotel, Treehouse offers customers the opportunity to keep up their fitness and wellbeing regime during their stay, by offering PT sessions with trainers from local studio, Frame.

Guests have the option to have a personal training session in their suite, on The Nest terrace, or in nearby Regent’s Park.

Treehouse Hotel Manchester is being developed in partnership with Property Alliance Group and will mark the first phase of a £200m redevelopment of the former Renaissance Hotel on Deansgate. SH Hotels & Resorts is an affiliate of global private investment firm Starwood Capital Group.

Designed to appeal to "the youthful spirit in all of us", Treehouse Hotel Manchester is being designed in collaboration with independent design studio 93ft.

The property will incorporate an "organic aesthetic to create a comfortable oasis and playful rooms", encouraging its guests to relax and enjoy.

With a focus on sustainability, the hotel will promote biophilia through the introduction of roof gardens, living green walls and a kitchen garden harvesting rainwater.

A rooftop apiary will produce honey while the building's façade will also feature local artists' murals as an homage to the city and community.

Guests will enter the 216-room hotel beneath a treehouse canopy and be drawn down a path with an abundance of dappled light and the natural scent of pitch pine, reminiscent of entering a secret forest.

Design details will allow travelers to share ideas, stories, and connect with the local community including hopscotch carpets; stepping-stones in lift lobbies; and an invitation for visitors to carve their stories into a central living wooden art piece that will grow over time.

Dining experiences include a top-floor restaurant and bar with uninterrupted views of the city, and a crowning rooftop venue.

Starwood Capital Group chair and CEO, Barry Sternlicht, said: "I'm really excited to launch our second Treehouse Hotel in the UK.

"Manchester is as much a destination for travelers as a gathering place for its energetic local community.

"Our Treehouse will introduce a new execution of fun and witty, and provide an imaginative hospitality experience.

"As a sustainable brand, we will reuse and repurpose the existing building."


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In addition to the property in Manchester, Treehouse has also announced its first international property in Miami.

The 191-room, 62-floor hotel will be constructed as part of a mixed-use development in Miami's Brickell neighbourhood called the 1 Southside Park.

The overall development will extend over 2.5m sq ft and will include 100,000sq ft of health and wellness, including a large gym and spa, as well as 1,175 residential units, 200,000sq ft of office space and 11,000sq ft of restaurants. The building will rise to 64 stories.

New York-based JDS Development Group is behind the project, having spent a combined US$23 assembling land parcels for the development

The design work is being done by SHoP Architects, Rockwell Group and ODP Architecture and Design. James Corner Field Operations is delivering the landscaping and public realm.

"Brickell is the perfect place for a Treehouse," Sternlicht has said. "Like its London counterpart, Treehouse Brickell will be as much a destination for travelers as a local hangout, and will introduce a new kind of thoughtful, fun and imaginative hospitality experience to the area."

Miami commissioners approved the sale of the property for 1 Southside Park in February 2020. It's the former site of a fire station, so a new fire station will be incorporated into the mixed-use project.

Located near the Miami-Dade Metrorail's Brickell station, 1 Southside Park is central to one of Miami's most anticipated projects, The Underline, which was completed in Autumn 2020.

The Underline transformed the land below an elevated Metrorail into a ten-mile, linear neighborhood park with an urban trail and living art destination that stretches from Brickell to Dadeland.