It has been one of the biggest blights on the town of Sandown for years, but finally there is light at the end of the tunnel as parts of the former Ocean Hotel building are now up for sale.
The once grand property has a complex history involving the Carlauren Group and its subsequent collapse. The group, which aimed to convert the hotel into a luxury care home back in 2017, ultimately went into administration, leaving the property derelict.
The hotel was subsequently sold to Phoenix Commercial Property Development (PCPD) and was then the target of multiple arson attacks. A legal battle between the Isle of Wight Council and the company followed, but PCPD sold the freehold and the Ocean Hotel has been sitting in limbo ever since.
Now, a terrace of retail units to the southern side of the Ocean Hotel building, at 38-39 High Street, is being offered at auction with a guide price of £250,000+.
The property is split across 3 floors with a variety of hotel rooms, retail space, storerooms and ancillary space. Outside, the terraced gardens include the hotel’s swimming pool.
At the other end of the derelict building, a separate lot is also up for auction – the hotel car park. This 0.18 acre parcel of land has also been listed with a guide price of £250,000+
Both lots are being offered freehold.
Michael Marchant, a senior auction appraiser for Clive Emson Auctioneers, who has listed the properties for sale, has said:
“It is considered the site may offer scope and potential for redevelopment or, perhaps, for repurposing of the existing buildings, subject to all necessary consents being obtainable”.
At this stage, the main Ocean Hotel building has not been listed for sale.
The former King’s House bar has already been sold, with a planning application currently being processed to convert it into a 4-bed house.
Isle of Wight Hotels Ltd is seeking planning consent to transform the boarded up building at 30 High Street into a 3-storey home with a garden, looking on to the Esplanade. But the plan has faced criticism from the Together for Sandown group who have raised ‘serious concerns regarding the protection of Sandown’s historic character, the vitality of its town centre, and the precedent it sets for future development’.
So burnt out open to the rain and ready for yet another fire is protecting the character with no thought to the FIRE FIGHTERS who have to risk injury whilst fighting fires inside this very UNSAFE building Nope not sense to me
It’s about time something was done about
all the derelict hotels in Sandown.
It amazes me with the state of Sandown,
Sandown have the cheek to charge 50p
to use toilets.
The big smoke have manned toilets and they
only charge 30p.
Sandown Town Council are deluded!.
Sandown is the worst seaside in the UK,
no other seaside as so many derelict
hotels.
Together For Sandown? They don’t represent me or the views of any other progressive, innovative Sandown peoole who want to see this wretched decaying eyesore turned into housing URGENTLY, not kept as yet another monument to meddling, stuck in the past councillors who cause the town far more harm than good.
Also look at the old Tourist information centre
it’s been sitting empty for a number of years.
It is in a pedestrian zone yet vehicles are frequently
driving in this area and parking on the pavement to
evade paying parking charges.
The Council should knock this eyesore down too!
It is going to take many years before Sandown is
brought up to scratch.
The Council seem to be clueless, it is affecting tourism.
Why object to any plan that will remove this eyesore? Beggars can’t be choosers!