Demolition begins to make way for multi-million-pound construction of UK’s first Passivhaus hotel

Work has begun to demolish a hillside hotel at Runswick Bay, near Whitby in North Yorkshire, to make way for the sustainable development of a 20-bed coastal hotel.

Silverstone Building Consultancy is project managing the multi-million-pound construction of a new, 19,321 sq. ft. high-spec hotel which is aiming to be accredited as the UK’s first Passivhaus hotel.

To achieve Passivhaus status, the existing building and its standings need to be completely stripped away.

Stainforth Construction, based in Shipley, is undertaking the demolition work which is expected to take eight weeks.

The new building will deliver very high thermal and airtightness performance, meaning the property will require a much lower amount of energy to heat and maintain temperature, than a standard construction.

Ben Rennocks, director at Silverstone Building Consultancy, said: “This is a complex and incredibly exciting project to work on. The Passivhaus benchmark is more commonly aspired to by new-build housing projects and is rarely applied to commercial buildings so there is a lot of research and learning involved and we’re enjoying the challenge.”

The hotel was acquired in 2022 by Karen Fojt and her family, who want to give something back to the local area after spending many happy, family holidays at the Bay over 15 years.

The managing director of Octopi Property, which owns the hotel, Melissa Tomlinson, said: “It’s a huge milestone for us to be able to announce that demolition is commencing. It’s taken a lot of time and effort from all involved parties to make it happen because it’s such a huge process.

“Silverstone fully understand what we are trying to achieve and are highly experienced in delivering new hotels so we’re confident the project is in safe hands.”

Silverstone Building Consultancy, a firm of chartered building surveyors and project managers with offices in Leeds, Newcastle and London, has previously managed the restoration of a number of hotels for The Inn Collection Group's portfolio, including The Harrogate Inn, Ripon Spa Hotel and the former Park Hotel, Tynemouth.