Corinthia Hotels is due to make its London debut, having secured a £135m loan from a syndicate of banks to develop the Metropole building near Trafalgar Square.

The historic Metropole building will be redeveloped as part of a joint venture formed by Malta's International Hotel Investments (IHI), shareholders of the Libyan Foreign Investment Company and Istithmar Hotels FZE of Dubai. The property, to be called The Corinthia Hotel & Residences, will be the first investment IHI has made in the UK and will accompany its portfolio of hotels located in Malta, Libya, Portugal, and Russia.

Once the five-star, 283-bedroom hotel is due to open in 2010 and will be operated by CHI Hotels & Resorts. The hotel will feature two clusters of restaurants, a bar, ballroom, and meeting facilities. The investors bought the property last year from Crown Estates for around £135m, which has been matched by banks to make it a 50:50 loan-to-equity funded project.

The Metropole building was originally a luxury hotel in the early part of the 20th century and has since been used as government offices.