The former Boddington’s brewery site has been earmarked for a 200-bed Travelodge hotel.

The budget hotel will be the first tenant on the Strangeways plot in four years.

The seven acre area was set for a major housing and leisure complex after developers bought the site in 2006, but progress was stalled by the recession.

A scheme to build a new Manchester College campus, announced in 2008, was also shelved due to a lack of government funding.

Developers Deansgate Securities Ltd are now hoping the Travelodge 35-year lease deal will ‘kick-start’ interest in the site.

Alan Burke, of Deansgate Securities, which is in a joint venture with Ask Developments Ltd and Realty Estates, said: “It’s a difficult market, and to get a deal on the Boddington’s site is great.

“We’ve got big ambitions and this reflects a massive vote of confidence in the site, which is a stone’s throw from a highly successful M.E.N Arena and Manchester’s primary shopping area, the Arndale Centre.”

Travelodge will submit a planning application to Manchester council by the end of this month, and if given the green light, the hotel will be opened in June 2011.