The owners of a Carlisle hotel have bought another prime building as they attempt to lead a transformation of one of the city centre’s gateways.

Simon Harrison, one of the men behind The Halston aparthotel complex in Warwick Road, said his firm has taken over the former Lloyds Pharmacy building, a few doors down from his existing property.

By adding the building to his portfolio he’s hoping to complete the regeneration of that stretch of Warwick Road.

“We acquired that last Friday and want to turn it into a full renovation of the street. If no one else is going to do it then we will,” Mr Harrison said.

“We are moving down the street to tidy it up. There are options, but the main thing is that we finish the job. Further down the street the buildings are all occupied and looking good.

“If you cast your mind back to when it was derelict, the whole area was in a pretty poor state. You get this positive effect on an area when you do enough, that’s helped the likes of Prezzo come into the Andalusian building.”

At this stage the businessman couldn’t confirm what the premises would be used for, but said it was likely there would be apartments on the upper floors.

His announcement comes as plans for the next phase of development of The Halston, which celebrated its second birthday last month, were unveiled.

Owners hope the striking extension on the site of the old Lonsdale Cinema could be complete by summer 2018, subject to planning permission.

This next stage of development will add more apartments to the hotel’s capacity while also providing new bar and restaurant space. There is also the potential for retail which has already attracted some interest.

“We made a promise to replace the Lonsdale with something that was good,” Mr Harrison added.

“We’ve spent a bit of time analysing our market and the aparthotel model works pretty well with our growing market in events and weddings. But we need economy of scale. We have too few rooms.

“We look at this area now as the place in the city where people are coming to dine, they want somewhere easy to park and to go into a nice venue. There’s a growing market for people coming to Carlisle as a meeting point, we’ve also got an influx of people coming in from west Cumbria too.”

He says The Halston has proved popular with corporate events and they hope to promote Carlisle as a city break destination.