It’s stunning, it’s luxurious – and it will soon open in York.
34 by Continental Gold is the newest offering for a special stay in the heart of York – complete with unique decor and beautiful views of the city.
Situated on 34 Coney Street, the building was previously home to a Swarovski jewellery shop. It has now been transformed into eight holiday rental apartments, with each room inspired by the history of the building.
The apart-hotel has been developed by property development company Continental Gold. YorkMix spoke with co-owner Rupert Kay to find out more.
Rupert, who was born and raised in South Africa, founded Continental Gold around two and a half years ago along with his brother, Josh. As well as York, they have properties in Hull, Doncaster and Retford.
“It’s a goal for us to be developing in York,” said Rupert. “As a developer, there’s certain places you want to develop – and York’s definitely one of them.
“You’ve got the all year round tourist attractions – it’s always busy. So it ticked a lot of boxes.”
In York, they are also planning on turning 2 Low Ousegate (next to Yates) into eight two-bed apartments, with a penthouse on top.
The eight apartments are inspired by the history of the building – with some reflecting previous occupiers of 34 Coney Street – as well as the city itself.
Throughout history the building has been many things – such as a bookshop, opticians, silk mercers, travel agency, and more.
Rooms include ‘The Book Sellers’, with hanging lights in the shape of books and real book press and ‘The Servants Quarters’, which is a one bedroom self contained basement apartment.
The penthouse apartment is ‘The Viking Suite’ with stunning, panoramic views of York Minster and Norse-inspired decor, to reflect York’s Viking history.
The apartments have been designed by interior designer Emma Hare from Den Interiors, and the sofas, chairs, beds and headboards have been created by Morii Designs.
“We wanted people to come away and have a bit of an experience from the room, and have the urge to take pictures and show someone.”
The whole process has taken around 14 months, with the purchasing of the building taking place in February last year and the project reaching completion in April. Now just the finishing touches are needed before the official launch on Friday 2 June with bookings from Monday 5 June.
The build went about two months over. “We did have plans to really try and push the build so that we could be open just after Christmas, but then we also realised that we’d rather not push the site too hard, make sure the quality is high, and deliver to the highest possible standard.”
Continental Gold purchased the building for £765k, and developed it with a loan of £1.3million. It was recently valued at £2.45million.
The development didn’t come without its challenges though. Since 34 Coney Street is a Grade II listed building, it made the build “very difficult and more expensive because you can’t really affect any of the interior structures.
“You have to be really careful.”
Another challenge was considering details like “TVs, coffee machines, change of linen, towels, welcome packs. It’s not what we are used to in terms of developing apartments
“There’s so many smaller details when you start to do apart-hotel type of stuff.”
34 by Continental Gold is hoping to attract everyone from racegoers to hen parties to young couples to international students doing their Masters.
“Hopefully we get some long term lets as well.”
The prices of the rooms will vary from around £120 to £340 per night.
The apart-hotel has created around three to four jobs.
“We really tried to work locally,” said Rupert. “We’re using Stays York to manage the block, and we’re going to be using local soaps and body washes, local gins and beers in the welcome packages.
“We’re trying to use a lot of the money that we have to go back into the system.”
34 by Continental Gold is open for bookings from 5 June.
“We’ve been fortunate enough to be able to deliver a project we’re really proud of.”
For more information about 34 by Continental Gold and to make a booking, visit their website here, and take a look at their Instagram page.
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