Search for hotel developer for Redsands Forts

Redsand Forts were built in 1942 to help protect the Kent coast from German attack and played a vital part in defence before being decommissioned by the MoD in the late 1950s. 

In the 1960s various forts were re-occupied and used as pirate radio stations, but since then have been unused. 

Now David Cooper, a retired businessman employed by the charity managing the forts, is looking for a hotel developer who could turn the structures into a hotel with spa, restaurant and a museum. 

"I was asked to come up with any ideas to preserve the forts and I'd seen similar things done with hotels in the solent," he told BigHospitality "I think there is potential to create a very exclusive hotel and I want to find the right developer who could do that." 

Plans​

Preliminary drawings outlining plans for the hotel, which will be accessed by catamaran and helicopter, have been drawn up by Aros Architects. Proposals include connecting the forts by a new circular structure formed around the control tower which would form the hotel's reception and dining areas.  

Four of the gun towers would be converted into standard bedrooms while the Bofors Tower would be given over to the creation of larger executive suites, with the possibility of a small spa/health facility. 

Cooper said he had already met with a property company specialising in hotel projects and had received an enquiry from another developer interested in taking on the project, which would be leased to a hotel developer by Crown Estates. 

"It will be a rather iconic sort of place and once it is developed could be amazing," he added.