De Vere hotel up for sale (From Daily Echo)

De Vere Grand Harbour Hotel in Southampton up for sale

6:00pm Tuesday 24th January 2012 in Southampton By Matt Smith, Politics and business reporter

Southampton’S iconic Grand Harbour hotel is up for sale.

The distinctive luxury £20m waterfront venue, with its massive pyramid-shaped glass atrium, is set to be sold by owners the De Vere Group.

The 173-room hotel was built nearly 20 years ago by the group as the “ultimate business and leisure hotel”.

But its five-star rating was downgraded to four stars three years ago and it is now to be sold to fund an expansion of the group’s threestar Village Hotels business.

Workers last night said that they were aware of the sale.

The hotel in West Quay Road also includes a popular bar, brasseriestyle restaurant, leisure club and spa, and conference and meeting rooms.

The De Vere Group, which is controlled by the Lloyds Banking Group, is selling the Grand Harbour along with two other De Vere branded hotels – the 140-room Royal Bath in Bournemouth and the 119-room University Arms in Cambridge. It is also planning to sell The Village Daresbury Park Hotel in Warrington and one of the smaller De Vere conference venues in Peebles, near Edinburgh.

De Vere Group chief executive Andrew Coppel said the proceeds, estimated at about £65m, would be used to help fund the development of the three new De Vere Village Hotels, which cost about £19m each. He said the Village format would bring higher returns.

There are already 26 Village properties, with another 18 in the pipeline, now under the leadership of Robert Cook, the former boss of Malmaison and Hotel du Vin.

The Grand Harbour opened in 1994 after some delays during construction when the original developer called in the receivers.

The futuristic design of the hotel, nestling by the city’s historic medieval walls, attracted some criticism at the time.

Sailors claimed sun glinting off the glass pyramid blinded their vision, while a top restaurant critic called it “one of the ugliest buildings in Britain”.

But it became a favourite with cruise passengers and provided pivotal accommodation for the Southampton Boat Show.

Guests at the £89 to £319 per night hotel have included Premiership football teams during Saints’ time in the top flight, as well as the England cricket team.

VIPs and celebrities to have stayed there include Emma Thompson, Hugh Laurie, Imelda Staunton, Titanic star Kate Winslet, Jason Donovan, Su Pollard, Michael Aspel and Lesley Joseph.

It has played host to various highprofiles conferences, dinners and charity events in the city. All 43 of the country’s police chief constables were invited to the hotel for a conference to discuss the Stephen Lawrence report in 1999.

Police had to be called to the hotel after the Hull-based band The Beautiful South launched an impromptu fireworks display on the hotel lawns to celebrate their album Blue is the Colour reaching number one in 1996.

A De Vere Group spokeswoman was unavailable to confirm details of the sale.