Freeze on building will not stop four star hotel

8:51am Sunday 15th June 2008

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PLANS for an eyecatching £50m hotel in Ocean Village are unaffected by the decision to stop work at Admiral's Quay.

Rising 15-storeys into the air, the 225- bed, glass-sided hotel will be built with a waterfront "events piazza" designed to lure back sailing races lost to regional rival Portsmouth.

Although planning permission for a hotel on the site, jutting out into the marina, was granted in 2006, the company behind the scheme wanted to redesign the building, which is now expected to open in 2010.

The hotel, which is intended to be a "four-star superior"

level, has been altered to increase the glazing on the public floors at the base of the hotel and to make the guestrooms look like they "float" above.

At the same time, the guestroom block has been moved towards the land to make the end of the promontory more of a destination and to provide a bigger outside dining area.

The glazing has also been extended to the ground floors to link the space with the outside events piazza, allowing events to spill outside from the hotel.

The piazza will boast five large statues depicting the coastlines of global ports with links to Southampton.

Other changes include the introduction of an environmentally- friendly sea-water cooling system instead of traditional air conditioning.

The project comes from Marina Developments Limited (MDL), the owners of Ocean Village Marina and the largest company of its kind in Europe.

Alan Chater of MDL said: "We are committed to building a high quality hotel on this key site in Ocean Village."