The Sefton Group has this morning announced plans to move the Palace Hotel and Casino into central Douglas.

In a statement released by the group, it was also revealed that Auldyn Properties Ltd, the group's biggest shareholder, has bought the Middlemarch site from the government five years after it was bought from the group as part of a bail-out package.

It is with Auldyn Properties Ltd that the Sefton Group has signed a memorandum of understanding, signalling the intention to move the Palace Hotel and Casino from its current site on Douglas Promenades to the site between Walpole Avenue and Fort Street.

The statement reveals plans for ’the creation of a new casino complex for Palace, additional third-party leisure facilities and a multi-storey car park to serve the new development and provide greater parking capacity for shoppers and businesses in lower Douglas’.

Sefton Group CEO, Brett Martin, said: ’Our stated aim over the last few years has been to relocate our Palace Hotel & Casino operations to Lower Douglas.

’Auldyn Properties’ acquisition of the Middlemarch site and our planned involvement in the proposed development is a welcome first step in a process that will likely see the casino operations relocate first, with a new hotel to follow at some point further down the line.’

In April 2013, the then Allan Bell government controversially agreed a multi-million pound bail-out to rescue the Sefton Group, which involved a £1.3m loan and the purchase and five year lease back of the Middlemarch site for £3.2m.

For more information, see Thursday's Manx Independent.