Another Douglas hotel could soon be knocked down.

The owner of the Marina Hotel on Loch Promenade, which has lain empty for some time, is seeking to demolish the building and replace it a new ’infill building to provide basement office and nine residential apartments’.

The application (18/00890/B with 18/00891/CON) from Westminister Associates Ltd, which owns the building and the adjacent Cubbon House, comes after a previous application (16/01163/B) to convert the former hotel was approved in May of last year. The proposal to change the use of the building from a hotel to office and domestic use has already been agreed by planners.

Now the owners need building regulations approval to allow for demolition.

However, a structural feasibility report has said the building is unsafe and stated ’there is an urgency due to its condition for it to be demolished’.

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The report says: ’Currently the building is considered unsafe to access all areas due to the condition of the structure currently remaining.’

The new application will not increase the number of rooms stipulated in the original application while the design will ensure it matches the neighbouring properties.

The approval notice in 2017 stated: ’No development shall commence until a schedule of materials and finishes and samples of the materials to be used in the construction of the glazing curtain wall, frameless balustrades and roof finishes of the projecting and overhanging roof, have been submitted to and approved in writing by the department.

’The re-instated arch heads above the three fourth floor windows are required to be finished with a paint render matching the existing building.’

The reason given for the stipulations was that it is ’in the interests of the character and appearance of the site and the conservation area’.

The hotel falls under the Douglas Promenades Conservation Area Order of 2002, meaning any demolitions, conversations and/or new builds must adhere to rules on applications, materials and design.

The owners state in the application that the demolition will be beneficial as it will be allow for the entire building to be ’constructed to current building regulations with modern materials from the foundations upwards’.

The Marina is the latest in a line of former hotels and guest houses which have closed and fallen into disrepair and/or been demolished. However, the owners have made plans for its development.

One site which the future is uncertain for is the now former site of the Imperial Hotel.

With the demolition finalised over the weekend, the removal of rubble and clean up the site can now begin, although what will replace the hotel is still unknown.