New owner reveals £22m plan to turn island into luxury hotel site

Turning Plymouth’s landmark Drake’s Island into a high-class hotel destination would cost up to £22million – but its new owner is confident it can be done.

Morgan Phillips, managing director of Plymouth Sound Properties Ltd, which has just bought the island, wants to start work as soon as possible on turning it into a tourist trap.

Although the newly formed Plymouth Sound Properties vehicle has only just acquired the six-acre island, a few hundred yards off-shore in Plymouth Sound, it already has planning permission for a hotel development.

There is consent for already existing buildings, including a Grade-II listed Barracks and Ablutions block, to become a “high-quality” 43 bedroom hotel and for the Casemates, listed as an Ancient Monument, to be turned into luxury suites.

Morgan Phillips, new owner of Drake's Island, which can be seen behind him, off Plymouth (Image: Penny Cross / Plymouth Live)

This planning approval was secured by former owner Dan McCauley and his Rotolok engineering firm.

Mr Phillips said the overall redevelopment of Drake’s Island would cost between £17million and £22million, including the undisclosed purchase price for the plot. It was sold with a guide price of £6million.

The businessman, whose Guardian Industrial ��Ƶ (GI��Ƶ) company procures and ships engineering gear to nations such as Georgia and Kazakhstan and is involved in major construction schemes in the South West, said he planned to “repair and preserve” the buildings already on the island though said there could be some limited new building, such as the permitted scenic lift which will bring visitors from the landing jetty to the Governor’s House.

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“There could be a lift shaft to make access to the island safe,” he said and explained he is already in talks with Natural England and Historic England.

The 54-year-old, who has visited the island four times, said the project could be paid for partly by his own firms’ resources, but also from international financial institutions and possibly some grant funding.

Drake's Island as seen from Plymouth Hoe (Image: Penny Cross / Plymouth Live)

He said: “I want to take Dan McCauley’s vision and put a hotel in, but we might change that slightly and have a heritage centre.”

He said this could containing information about the island’s history as a strategic military fort, and he also wants the public to eventually be able to visit he island “365 days a year”.

Mr Phillips said: “We want to open the island 365 days a year to the general public. There are a lot of discussions with experts about how we run an exclusive hotel and allow the general public to use it, but we know it can be done.”

He said there could even be public access during the redevelopment phase, and added: “We want to do chaperoned trips while we are working on it, so people are safe. It would be limited.”

15 things you need to know about Morgan Phillips

1 Morgan Phillips is 54 years old and left school at 17 to join the Royal Navy as a weapons engineer.

2 He trained at engineering college in Portsmouth, then came to Plymouth to join HMS Cardiff, and later served on Devonport-based frigates HMS Arrow and HMS Active.

3 He served in the Royal Navy for six years, including in the “nasty little conflict” in the Persian Gulf in 1985 and 1997, and was awarded the General Service Medal.

4 In 1992, Mr Phillips joined Thorn Security as a finance engineer after studied electrical engineering at City College Plymouth. He moved to Richmond, London, to become a training officer for Thorn.

5 In 1996 he was part of a small team that helped the Home Office formulate CCTV laws for public places.

6 Her was a project manager in the firm’s overseas department and worked in Beirut, Abu Dhabi and Dubai for nearly two years.

7 Among a range of international projects Mr Phillips has worked on are: Beirut City Sports Stadium; the train facility at the Holcim Cement works in Lebanon; HSBC Bank Branches in Lebanon; The National Bank of Dubai Headquarters in Dubai; the Emirates Airline Maintenance Hangers at Dubai Airport; refurbishment of the Shelf 5 Oil Platform for BP in the Caspian Sea; refurbishment works at the electrical distribution and metering systems for Azerbaijan; construction of a factory in Samarkand, Uzbekistan.

8 During his time working on the Baku City Metro project, in Azerbaijan, Mr Phillips needed to tap into consultancy services from London Underground. Current Prime Minister Boris Johnson, at the time mayor of London, was called on to help facilitate this, and did so. But Mr Phillips only had contact with him via email.

9 Mr Phillips is an active director of 15 companies. He started Guardian Industrial ��Ƶ (GI��Ƶ), in Plymouth, in 2005. GI��Ƶ is an independent company that provides specialist engineers in electrical, mechanical and civil engineering across a number of sectors, such as oil and gas, offshore, marine, industrial, commercial and domestic.

10 GI��Ƶ specializes in procuring and shipping equipment fand has worked in Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan, Georgia and Kazakhstan. There are sister companies in Azerbaijan and Georgia.

11 GI��Ƶ is involved in building projects in the South West and around the ��Ƶ. It is currently involved with the construction and refurbishment of residential units, including in Plymouth and Cornwall and on the refurbishment of the Eggbuckland Keep, part of the Palmerston defences for the north of Plymouth.

12 In 2016, Mr Phillips set up Storage Plymouth. This rents out 10ft and 20ft storage containers.

13 GI��Ƶ and Storage Plymouth are involved with charitable projects. GI��Ƶ is a member of the Saltram Rotary Club and through that and in association with the Shekinah Mission in Plymouth, sponsored a young man to attend a week’s leadership course on Dartmoor.

14 GI��Ƶ is signed up for the Armed Forces Covenant and has received a Bronze Award for employment of former service personnel.

15 Mr Phillips has a wife and daughter living in Plymouth, another grown-up daughter living in Oxford and a son in Gloucester. He lives in Saltash.

Mr Phillips said he is already in talks with river boat cruise firms about the potential for landing visitors on the island.

He is unable to give a start date for work on the island, only that he wanted to begin as soon as possible.

But he said that was dependent on carrying out more surveys on the ecological a historically sensitive site.

He is, however, confident that logistical challenges can be overcome. With an engineering background, and having been involved in several high-pressure developments including creating an underground system in Baku, Azerbaijan, Mr Phillips already has civil and structural engineers working for him.

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“We have been involved in other projects,” he said. “That has been invaluable, and we are hitting the ground running.

“It’s going to be a very difficult project and will take a while to put into operation, but we have the right people and want the people of he city to help us.”

And as for realising the dream? He said: “That is a difficult question, we have to get through these surveys to find out how long it will take. But we want to keep the people of Plymouth informed.”