THIS is the stunning £25m luxury hotel on Southampton’s waterfront that is set to be given the go-ahead next week, the Daily Echo can reveal.

The super-yacht-inspired hotel development would be the final piece in the jigsaw to transform Ocean Village into a rival to Portsmouth’s Gunwharf Quays.

The 76-bedroom hotel and spa, which will be of a four or five-star standard, will jut out into the marina and boast a champagne roof terrace and a restaurant. Twelve luxury duplex flats will sit on top of the hotel.

Another 82 flats will be built up to ten storeys high next door over a mix of shops, cafes, restaurants and offices.

Bosses at MDL Marin-as, which has drawn up the scheme dubbed Southampton Harbour Hotel, want to bring in a Michelin-starred chef to set up one of the restaurants.

Earlier plans for a 13-storey 224-bedroom hotel were granted in 2008 but the scheme failed to progress due to the economic downturn.

The new scheme will complement a £74m plan by Allied Developments, half owned by the boss of the Carphone Warehouse Charles Dunstone, for three nearby towers of 300 flats and up to eight restaurants. One of the towers would become the city’s tallest building rising more than 260ft.

Councillors gave the go-ahead for that scheme in January.

Eamonn Feeney, managing director of MDL Marinas Group, said: “We see Ocean Village becoming the new waterfront destination for Southampton, to rival Gunwharf Quays.”

Ocean Village bosses have already beat Portsmouth and other rivals to host the departure and return in July of the Clipper round-the-world yacht race.

Councillors will be asked to approve the hotel plans next Tuesday.