Plans to convert and extend a 1950s office building in Manchester city centre into a boutique hotel with a roof-top bar are set to be approved by city councillors.

Stephenson Studio and Leach Rhodes Walker have worked up proposals to add a two new storeys to Pearl Assurance House in Princess Street – as well as a seven-storey rear extension – to turn the building into a 70-room hotel.

The scheme, created for operator Malmaison, is a stone’s throw from the grade I-listed Manchester Town Hall. But a report to members of the city’s planning and highways committee said Historic England considered the extension proposals to be a “sympathetic contemporary design” that “subtly reinterprets” the style of Pearl Assurance House.

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