One of Torbay's oldest hotels is up for sale for £4.5million.
The Redcliffe Hotel, a traditional seafront hotel has been in the Twigger family for 41 years.
Now the family plan to retire and that the trend for staycationing will mean the bay is more in demand than ever.
Stephen Champion, Director at Christie & Co is handling the sale.
He said: “Interest in hotels has increased significantly post lockdown, with a number of quality hotels in the South West having gone under offer in recent weeks. "Speculative buyers are looking ahead at the booming demand for domestic travel fuelled by the rise in staycations and drop in foreign travel. We expect The Redcliffe Hotel with its unique location to attract significant interest from a wide range of purchasers.”
The 70-bed Redcliffe Hotel was constructed between 1855-65 as a grand home originally named Redcliffe Towers, for the retired Colonel Robert Smith. It received a conversion into a hotel in 1903 and is now regarded as a well-known grade II listed landmark and prominent piece of architectural history, with much of its original design having been inspired by traditional Indian architecture.
The Twigger family bought the hotel in 1979 and now plan to retire.
Stephen Twigger, current owner, said: “This is a hotel with immense character and great facilities in an amazing location. It has been our pleasure to be the guardians for the last 41 years and we are proud of the reputation we have built for the hotel during this time, however we feel now is the right time for us to retire from the sector and we look forward to passing the reins to a new owner.”
Torbay has seen big overseas investment in recent years with a £150million project by Singapore based the Fragrance Group to create a series of luxury hotels.
The developers are demolishing the Palace Hotel in Babbcombe, the prime seafront Corbyn Head Hotel spot in Torquay and the twin Park Hotel and Lighthouse locations on Esplanade Road, overlooking Paignton Green.
The Palace is expected to be completed by 2023, Park Hotel in August 2021, the Lighthouse in September 2021 and Corbyn Head will take between 18-22 months to build when it gets started.
In total, the four ultra-modern hotels will provide more than 600 rooms.
In another boost for Torbay a string of local hotels have been voted among the world's best tourist accommodation - with The 25 voted the top B&B in the world for the second year running and the Ascot House is the Ƶ's best small hotel - many others are in the top 25 TripAdvisor Travellers' Choice 2020 awards
And the Hampton by Hilton hotel at the £35million Torwood Street development in Torquay is expected to open from January next year after a delay due to Covid-19.
The site will also include new offices and food and drink units on the street level opposite Park Lane nightclub, near the clock tower on the harbour.
The development by the THAT group - led by Peter Tisdale and Ray Kelvin, boss of fashion giants Ted Baker - includes a £9m commercial loan from Torbay Council.
