Business
New Hotel Planned for Capital
The hotel would be the site of the former Salvation Army Citadel on Lord Street
The owner of the Mannin Hotel has submitted plans for a new 44 room hotel in the heart of Douglas.
Keith Lord, of Hesketh Investment Limited, wants to build his new hotel on the site of the former Salvation Army Citadel, Lord Street.
The proposed hotel would have a rooftop plant room, with four floors above ground, a ground floor and a basement level floor; accommodating forty-four bedrooms on the upper floors, with a restaurant, small bar area and reception foyer on the ground floor. Staff facilities and additional storage are in the small basement area.
Mr Lord also owns and operates serviced apartments on Rileys Corner, Douglas and Bay View Road, Port Erin; and operates holiday cottages in Loan.
The application says: ‘The existing Citadel building is not suitable for renovation into a new hotel. The internal plan layout is restrictive, and its structure is not conducive to internal reconfiguration of spaces. The headroom on the upper floors is too low for a modern highly serviced hotel. The building at only three storeys above ground could not provide the required number of bedrooms to achieve an economically sustainable hotel business.
The proposed hotel footprint sits almost fully on the footprint of the former Citadel building, with a narrow alley adjacent to the Old Hanover Street School building and a wedge-shaped gap with alley to no. 1 Church Street.
The wedge-shaped gap and alley which opens onto Church Street have been retained to allow access for bin storage, bar deliveries, and servicing and maintaining the ductwork and lift motor room facade to no. 1 Church Street. The pedestrian access onto Kelly’s Yard has also been retained for bin collection and kitchen deliveries.
In his application, Mr Lord says the hotel would create 16 full-time jobs ‘within a range of occupations and skill levels with an average annual salary of £30K’.
The Salvation Army left the Citadel in 2017 and had planned to redevelop it. However, in 2020 the church announced it had scrapped those plans and would remain at its new base in Braddan.
You can find the application here.
