Two south Leeds firms team up for the sixth time on a Dakota hotel, this one inside York’s medieval walls and due to finish in spring 2028.
Leeds developer Evans Property Group has appointed GMI Construction Group as principal contractor for Dakota York, a 140-bedroom hotel planned inside the medieval walls of York. Evans, based at Millshaw in south Leeds, announced the appointment on 28 October 2026 and said completion is planned for spring 2028.
GMI, which has its head office on Westland Road in Leeds, has already built Dakota hotels in Leeds, Glasgow, Manchester city centre, Newcastle and at Manchester Airport, making York the sixth Dakota project for the two companies.
Why This Matters For Leeds
The York contract shows two south Leeds businesses carrying a partnership that began with hotels in Leeds, Manchester and Glasgow into another historic city. For Leeds subcontractors and suppliers, a developer that keeps returning to the same contractor means steadier work beyond the city boundary.
The Dakota York site and timetable
Evans owns the Dakota Hotels brand. The York hotel will be built on the Northern House site, a former office block in the city centre. City of York Council’s planning committee voted unanimously to approve the scheme on 11 September 2025, ten months after Evans lodged an application it said could create about 120 jobs.
Evans described the appointment as “another chapter in the Dakota and GMI relationship”. It said working together across successive projects means understanding the brand and the detail that matters. In York, it added, that starts with careful planning for a constrained site within the walls.
Dakota York follows the handover of Dakota Manchester Airport, which Evans said GMI completed four weeks ahead of programme. The 154-bedroom hotel on the MIX Manchester campus opened in July 2026 and Evans put its cost at £54m. Before that, GMI delivered the Newcastle hotel, a conversion of the St Ann’s Wharf office building on the Quayside, which opened in April 2025.
Two Leeds firms behind the hotels
Both companies are based in south Leeds. Evans Property Group, which also has an office in London, is a property investor and developer with a portfolio that runs from hotels to logistics, including the Fradley Link industrial scheme at Fradley Park in Staffordshire. Its wider group includes the housebuilder Evans Homes. Evans already has a foothold in York, having started work on an industrial scheme at York Business Park in 2020.
Dakota Leeds was one of the first three hotels GMI built for the brand, alongside Manchester city centre and Glasgow, before the contractor moved on to the Newcastle conversion and the airport scheme.
The York job adds to a busy run of hotel building involving Leeds firms. In June, Caddick Construction broke ground on a 200-room hotel on Lisbon Street in Leeds city centre, part of the West End regeneration.
- Learn more about GMI Construction Group: gmi.co.uk
Sources: Evans Property Group announcement, 28 October 2026; Evans Property Group, York planning approval, 13 September 2025; Evans Property Group, York hotel plans lodged, 15 November 2024; GMI Construction Group legal information
