Hoteliers’ £100m plan to revitalise Blackpool’s seafront

A £100m masterplan for Blackpool's New South Promenade could see 10 seafront hotels demolished and replaced with six new buildings containing holiday and residential accommodation.

The new blocks, which could reach up to 12 storeys high, are proposed for Bourne Crescent on New South Promenade to revitalise the area between Harrowside and Burlington Road.

The plans are a joint bid from hoteliers who say the only way to halt the falling visitors numbers that have plagued the region is to replace ageing holiday accommodation with up-to-date rooms and 300 luxury sea view apartments.

Blackpool-born architect Peter Marshall, who has worked on projects as far afield as Beijing and Hong Kong, and whose family also owns the Headlands Hotel which features in the plans, has designed the scheme.

The hotels facing demolition are the Henderson, the Kenilworth, the Kimberley, the Waldorf, the Headlands, the Warwich, the Colwyn, the Skye, the Trafford and the Sandpiper Apartments.

The first three floors of each block would house holiday accommodation while the floors above would provide residential units, in a similar style to Liverpool's Malmaison hotel/apartment scheme. Plans also include two restaurants, car parking and landscaping.

Californian-born agent Fernando Fernandez is advising the hoteliers. He said: "Anywhere in the world, beachfront property is the best."

"We've heard of celebrities like Jonathan Ross and Robbie Williams saying they would like to live in Blackpool. But where would they go at the moment? This will be real luxury living with a sea view as good as anywhere in the world."

Talks between planning officials and the hoteliers have already taken place, while feasibility reports proving that properties behind the development would not be overshadowed have also been prepared.

The application is expected to go before the council's development control committee in June.