Lancashire, UK: A hotel that spent years as a building site has reopened for business, and now has a lender backing its comeback. Hilco Real Estate Finance (HREF), a Hilco Global company, has completed a €5.46m bridging loan against a 68-key hotel and leisure complex in Lancashire.
Close to the M6, the property offers 64 bedrooms, four self-contained cottages, a restaurant, spa, leisure and sports facility and a 450-capacity event space. The current owner acquired it in 2022 and reopened it earlier in 2026 after a major refurbishment programme, the kind of project that tests a borrower's patience as much as their balance sheet.
The 12-month facility refinanced more expensive construction loans, funded a share buyout and raised additional working capital for the borrowers' wider business interests. Crucially, it gives the owner breathing space to build a positive trading track record before a more mainstream commercial term loan refinance in 2027.
Matt Watson, Director at HREF, said: "Lending against hotels requires a deep understanding not only of the real estate but the underlying trading business, with HREF holding both the experience and capabilities to deliver and underwrite a solution such as this. The refurbishment programme has greatly enhanced the hotel's trading potential, and with encouraging early demonstrated performance we look forward to successful delivery of the business plan for the asset."
One question the deal raises, and one rarely addressed, is what happens to refurbished hospitality assets in the gap between practical completion and a term lender's appetite. High street lenders typically want to see stabilised trading before they commit, yet construction debt is costly to carry once works finish. For developers and investors in regional hotels and leisure-led schemes, that gap is where value can be lost or won, and it suggests specialist bridging capital may become a standard part of the exit strategy rather than an emergency measure.
Launched in 2023, HREF offers short-term bridging loans for growth initiatives, acquisitions, development exits and refinancing, and has recently added a medium-term loan product. It lends from €3.6m to €180m+ across the UK and Ireland, and as part of ORIX Corporation USA and its parent ORIX Corporation, which had assets under management of approximately €610bn as of 31 December 2025, it counts among the best-capitalised lenders in the sector.
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People mentioned
- Matt Watson, Director at HREF
Companies mentioned
- Hilco Real Estate Finance (HREF), institutionally backed property lender that provided the bridging loan
- Hilco Global, diversified financial services company and parent of HREF
- ORIX Corporation USA, parent of Hilco Global
- ORIX Corporation, ultimate parent company supporting HREF
Image Source: Matt Watson portrait, Hilco Real Estate Finance.
