Kimpton Hotels & Restaurants has confirmed Edinburgh's New Town as the location for its second UK property, with a £40 million conversion of a grade-A listed Georgian building on George Street expected to open in early 2028.
The project, being delivered in partnership with Edinburgh-based developer Quartermile Developments, will see a series of interconnected townhouses transformed into a 112-room hotel with a rooftop bar, ground-floor restaurant, and spa facilities. IHG, Kimpton's parent company, confirmed the signing on Wednesday.
The announcement follows Kimpton's first UK opening — the Kimpton Fitzroy in London's Bloomsbury, which debuted in 2018 and has since become one of the capital's most talked-about lifestyle hotel properties. The Edinburgh project represents the brand's first regional UK push and signals a wider European expansion strategy.
Preserving the Georgian fabric
Listed building consent was granted by the City of Edinburgh Council in January following a two-year planning process. The design, led by Edinburgh-based architects Simpson & Brown, retains all principal Georgian interiors including original cornicing, shuttered sash windows, and stone staircases. Contemporary interventions — including a new rooftop structure housing the bar and event space — have been positioned to be non-intrusive from the street.
The ground-floor restaurant will be operated under a separate chef-led concept, details of which IHG said would be announced later in the year. Kimpton's broader model tends toward independent food and beverage operators rather than in-house brands, a positioning the company said it intended to continue in Edinburgh.
Edinburgh's hotel pipeline
The announcement adds to a busy hotel development pipeline in Edinburgh, where visitor demand has consistently outstripped available room stock during peak periods. The city welcomed a record 4.9 million overnight visitors in 2025 according to VisitScotland figures, with occupancy rates at four and five-star properties averaging 84 per cent across the year.
"Edinburgh has long been on our European wishlist," said Kimpton's vice president of development for Europe and the Middle East. "The New Town is one of the finest Georgian streetscapes in the world, and the chance to bring a building of this quality back into active use as a hotel is genuinely rare."
Construction is expected to begin in the third quarter of this year, with a phased programme designed to limit disruption to neighbouring businesses on George Street.