Property developer Mike Holland has gained a reputation as the “saviour” of Brighton and Hove for his successful developments and generous charity work. But in a year which has seen him go through a costly divorce, the disastrous takeover of a private school and the recession stall some of his more grandiose projects, is his halo starting to slip? Business editor SAM THOMSON finds out.

In a room on the upper floor of Stanmer House, where Mike Holland runs his business affairs, there is a board with the addresses of about two dozens properties written on it.

They range from flats and bedsits to large houses and the 165-room Abbey Hotel, together representing the current state of the portfolio that the millionaire property magnate has built up since arriving in Brighton at the age of 18.

Just a few months ago the board would have served as an illustration of his impressive list of accomplishments.

But now it gives a stark indication of how things have gone wrong for Mr Holland in recent times.

Several of the properties are scored off with black marker, sold off to pay for a costly divorce from his fourth wife, Nina.

He refuses to say exactly how much it cost him but puts just the court costs alone at £750,000.

Meanwhile the recession has also affected his plans to redevelop the Hove Engineerium. It was originally due to open this year but has been delayed until September 2010 at the earliest.

Other schemes, such as the former Astoria cinema and the conversion of the stables at Stanmer House, have also hit the buffers because of the economic downturn, though Mr Holland claims that there are concrete plans in place for both projects.

On top of this, the 62-year-old is still reeling from the aftershock of a disastrous takeover of Newlands School, the private school that his children attended.

Mr Holland stepped in when the school got into serious financial difficulty in 2006. Earlier this year he sold it to the Pakistan-based Beaconhouse Education Group.

Getting rid was a great relief as he estimates he lost a total of £1.5 million through the affair.

It was one of the worst - but certainly not the first - of Mr Holland's business deals to go wrong.

He bought City News a few years ago and attempted to run it as a “good news” newspaper but couldn't make it work.

A last gasp attempt to change it into a glossy magazine called Insight failed and it folded about 12 months ago.

These recent trials and tribulations have forced Mr Holland to take a step back in his business dealings. It is perhaps the first time he has slowed down for nearly four decades.

“I think I thought I could do everything once upon a time,” he admitted. “But you can be too busy and I have learned to step back and take only take on things that are achievable.

“The school was definitely too much and I should never have got into publishing.

“I always try and see the funny side of things though. Sir James Goldsmith said that if it flies, floats or F**** then rent rather than buy.

“I would add to that the three 'Es'. If you can educate it, edit it or eat it, then let some other bugger do it.”

Mr Holland said he has been looking to reduce borrowing and cutting costs even before the recession started but recently things have deteriorated and he has been forced to let staff go.

He said: “Not to sound derogatory but I let go of people doing fluffy jobs like PR because there has not been enough business to do PR about.

“I didn't like having to let so many people and did a lot of soul-searching. But you have to look at the greater good of the company and everyone in general.

“I actually quite like recessions because it make you look at your housekeeping and you can end up coming out of it stronger than before.”

Mr Holland puts the success he has enjoyed over the years down to sheer determination and getting his head down.

He was born in Bromley, Kent, left school with no qualifications and joined the Merchant Navy where he spent three years sailing to places as far-flung as Africa, America and Australia.

At 18 he moved down to Brighton.

He said: “I had just got married and my wife was pregnant with our first child. We managed to get a room in the top floor of a house in Brunswick Terrace.

“I walked around a bit to find a job and eventually found work as a hod carrier. When you lived somewhere like Bromley in those days you would only hear live music at Christmas.

“It was amazing to come down to a place like West Street and hear live music even though it was a Monday night.

“People say Brighton is one of those places where you can stay young forever and I think that's true.”

At 19 Mr Holland was a self-taught bricklayer and by 21 he had enough construction skills to lead a team of builders to build the Hazeldene Meads Estate on Dyke Road, a project he was in charge of for two years.

He said: “It is amazing when I look back on them now. I actually bought one of the houses there a few years ago because I wanted to see what they were like these days.

“I'm amazed that they look as good as they did back then.

“A lot of people did building work as a way to get through the day but for me it was all about building a career.”

His property empire began with 42 St Mary Magdalen Street, which he bought aged 21. He paid £2,350 and sold it a few years later for almost double.

Mr Holland said: “I did not start making serious money until I was 27 when I realised the way forward was not necessarily building something to sell it.”

Instead he bought properties, did them up and rented them out before going back to the bank and getting a loan based on a revaluation of the property, which he used to put the deposit on another property.

“It was a constant struggle,” he admits now however. “Sometimes when I had to pay everyone at once I'd go home with about 2p in my pocket.

“The guys who worked for me would get enough to go to the pub but I would have nothing. That is the nature of the game.”

At the end of the 1980s he moved abroad, living in Andorra and parts of France, but his heart remained in Brighton.

When he returned in 1995 he began to make serious money through his acquisition of a hotel in St Leonards in which he housed vulnerable people such as asylum seekers after winning a Government contract.

Eventually he was providing 6,500 spaces for the Home Office around the country, employing about 250 staff.

The money this brought in allowed Mr Holland to greatly expand his property empire and some could argue that occasionally he bit off more than he could chew.

In 2004 he bought The Abbey and promised to turn it into the most disabled-friendly hotel in Brighton.

Disabled issues are close to his heart because one of his sons, Christopher, has cerebral palsy and needs to use a wheelchair.

But Mr Holland was unable to fulfil his ambitions and is now using The Abbey to provide short and medium-term accommodation for students.

He blamed the rigidity of the planning system, adding: “We struggled to get permission from the historic buildings groups and conservation officers. They wouldn't let us build a wheelchair ramp outside.

“These people must be more flexible.”

Other schemes that have come and gone include an ambitious monorail plan put forward by a team including former Dollar singer David Van Day, an alternative to Frank Gehry's King Alfred designs and a music festival in Stanmer Park which was a wash-out and lost thousands of pounds.

Despite these setbacks, Mr Holland has always made time to pursue charity work. His son Brian died of cancer in 1979 and as a result he does a lot of work for the Chestnut Tree Hospice, while he was also involved in the Whoopsadaisy charity, though his ex-wife Nina is now in charge.

Mr Holland is also keen to help rehabilitate drug users after he saw for himself how addiction can tear families apart.

He said: “I bought a house in Dyke Road where three out of the 14 tenants died in about 18 months from overdoses. The families would come to collect their belongings and they were people you never saw because they were estranged.

“It made you realise they were just normal people who had got there through various misguided reasons.”

He now rents out Caple-Ne-Ferne, a large property outside St Leonards, to Narconon, a drug rehabilitation charity run by the controversial Scientology religion.

Mr Holland cheerfully dismisses any worries about what some people brand a “cult”.

“They would struggle to convert me as I'm not religious at all,” he said. “The course they give down there is very, very good and I have put people through it. The ones that went through it successfully have gone on to have good jobs around the country.

“I have never met a Scientologist I didn't like either. If anything they are guilty of is being a bit overzealous.

“They are always really up for things, which can be tiring if you're having a bad day.”

In a year of ups and downs, one constant for Mr Holland has been the love and support of his partner Kate McKenzie, who recently made the news in her fight for better treatment for her daughter Hannah Mayne, a heroin addict at 18.

He said: “Kate has been very good for me. She is a person in her own right with her own career. She has definitely helped me get through the last few years.”

Mr Holland is optimistic that his recent business and personal troubles are now behind him.

He is even back on speaking terms with Nina.

“Things are pretty good,” he said. “I'm probably seeing more of my kids now than I ever did before.”

Mr Holland said his proudest moment was the reopening of Stanmer House, which he bought in 1998 and spent £5 million refurbishing it into a venue for wedding receptions, proms, civil ceremonies and other events.

But he added: “It will be an even greater day when we eventually open the Engineerium. My only regret over the years was has been that it took me so long to realise that moving abroad was not the answer. I had everything I wanted here in Brighton.

“The city is extremely vibrant and I love contributing to it and will continue to do so for many years.”