Historic former Morecambe hotel and pub set to be turned into apartments

Property developer, Alex Potocki, bought the Park Hotel in Regent Road in March and has submitted a planning application to convert it into 17 apartments and build six houses on land at the back.

“The Park Hotel is the largest empty building in Morecambe and is such a fabulous building,” said Mr Potocki who has been a full time developer with his partner and business partner, Helen Clarke, for four years.

“The main challenge is to provide a scheme which retains as much of the heritage of the building as possible. With modern energy and insulation standards to meet, our aspiration is to work with the conservation and building control departments to find solutions to bring the building back into use.”

The 17 apartments will include three one-bed, eleven two-bed and three three-bed flats while the proposed six houses on the site will have three bedrooms.

Roof repairs are needed to prevent any further internal damage to the ceilings and if the plans are approved by Lancaster City Council, it is expected that the development will take 18 months.

Before becoming a property developer, Mr Potocki worked in a number of UK property and retail roles for ALDI, Superdrug and Marks & Spencer. He’s also had senior property roles for retailers Target and Woolworths in Australia and Boots in Dubai.

Together with Helen, a Lancaster University graduate, they run Alexander Matthews Property and have a portfolio of houses in Blackpool and Lytham where they live. They also have three apartments on Morecambe seafront.