Rob Behan, owner of Water’s Edge Holdings, which owns the site, successfully applied for planning permission to carry out the work in 2017 – two years after the building closed its doors to tourists.
He said that whatever happened to the site, he intended to retain the dive centre and have a pub and restaurant there as well.
‘At the moment plans have been passed for a self-catering development which has commenced. Effectively, that is what we are looking to complete,’ he said.
‘We have done quite a bit of work already with the demolition of one building and a lot of stripping out.
‘The issues are with the 60s block, which we had been looking at retaining. There have been problems with the roof and three of the four walls and it needs demolishing. If three walls need to come down, then you might as well bring the fourth one down too.’
Mr Behan said the self-catering apartments would not be ready for this year’s season.
‘It is going to be a few years yet,’ he explained.
‘Either way, we are intending to keep a pub, restaurant and dive centre on the site.’
A design statement accompanying the planning application says: ‘The existing building, which contains the restaurant and dive centre, will be refurbished. The restaurant will be made smaller, removing a section of the west to create an outdoor al fresco patio area.
‘The existing four-storey 1960s hotel wing will have the existing mansard roof removed and the building will be remodelled and converted into self-catering apartments with a leisure facility on the ground floor.’
