Hotel bill goes up by £500,000 (From Free Press Series)

Hotel bill goes up by £500,000

THE bill for the redevelopment of the Clarence Hotel has gone up by around £500,000.

The run-down former hotel in the centre of Pontypool is being revamped by its new owners, Eastern Valley Housing Association.

Work on the project started in August last year and was due to be completed by November. The finish date has now slipped into next year.

EVHA is converting the building into 14 flats for rent, along with offices and conference rooms.

EVHA chief executive Mark Gardner was still upbeat about the project. He said: "We are making good progress.

"We are on track for a February or March finish. Work on the exterior is taking place through the summer and then we will work on the interior through the winter."

Mr Gardner explained why the cost and building time had grown. "It's an old building and once we started demolition we discovered a lot more work than we expected."

The original cost was estimated at £2.3 million. Now he expects the bill to rise by up to £500,000.

The extra money has been raised by the association.

"This is obviously a big investment for us and the town, but it will be money well spent," he added.

Mr Gardner said that although they weren't yet actively looking for customers to lease the offices and conference space, they were confident they would find users.

"We will be starting to advertise soon and we've already had expressions of interest. I don't think there will be any problems at all," he said.