Luxury seafront apartment block approved

The building of a block of 38 luxury apartments on a headland promenade has been backed by planners.

Last year Ocean Castle Limited, which is part of the Tevir Group, submitted plans to develop the empty "gap site" on Port Erin Promenade, which formerly held a hotel.

The project is set to be partly subsidised by the Isle of Man government through the Island Infrastructure Scheme, which funds the redevelopment of brownfield sites.

The developers said that regenerating empty urban sites outside the capital of Douglas would ensure that "service towns such as Port Erin are not left behind".

The seven-storey building has been proposed for a vacant site between Ocean Castle Drive and Rowany Villas, situated on the northern end of the town's promenade.

It would contain a four-bedroom "executive penthouse suite" and a mix of three-bedroom, two-bedroom and one-bedroom apartments.

In a planning statement, the developers argued that the benefits of the project "directly align with the strategic objectives of government", such as the Island Plan target to grow the population to 100,000.

Committee member Sam Skelton said that despite his support of the plans, he was "disappointed" that there was no affordable housing provision from the development.

Planning committee chairman Rob Callister MHK said that he wanted to put on record that there was a difficulty with adding apartments to the list of affordable housing due to "the unknown consequence of management fees".

A representative from Port Erin Commissioners, which supported the application, echoed this by saying that flats presented a "challenge" for affordable housing in part due to their leasehold nature.

Enterprise Minister Tim Johnston previously faced questions over the government's financial support for the project given the lack of affordable units included, however he told Tynwald members that was not the responsibility of the scheme.

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