HIlton Hotel, Rotherhithe Street - up for sale?

 

This may be old news to some residents, but I was away for a lot of the summer and may have missed an announcement on the subject, so apologies if I'm posting something you already know.  But whilst looking for something else completely on Google (which is always the way) I found this online document by CBRE Hotels, a company that specializes in the sale of hotels. It is a glossy brochure, proposing the sale of the Hilton Hotel on Rotherhithe Street, the assumption throughout being that it would probably be converted to residential use. 
http://www.cbrehotels.com/NR/rdonlyres/0DCD9279-ABA2-4B91-BD1F-4313725CE6CE/947323/HiltonLondonDocklands_Final.pdf

There's no date on this document but the advert for the hotel is currently at the top of the page of the European section of the CBRE Hotels site, together with a broker's name and the broker's telephone number, so the document is evidently current and up to date. 

I understand that Nelson House has been sold to a private purchaser recently (although don't quote me on that, as at the moment it's just hearsay), which would be consistent with the Hilton shedding property.

The hotel occupies both the modern 1990s buildings originally part of the Scandic Crown Hotel operation but it also includes various aspects of very valuable heritage, including one of the best surviving Thames-facing buildings, Columbia Wharf, aw well as the Nelson wet dock, and Thomas Bilbe's patented slip together with its engine house.  Guarantees for their continued well being would of course need to be factored into any change-of-use application.

I haven't looked into it any further at this stage and have no idea whether a change of use has actually been applied for, or whether provision for the continued supply of a ferry service would be factored into any consideration of a transition of the site from commercial to residential use use.   It is something that will require more attention in the near future.