Property developer David Glover has taken his latest venture to heart.

In July last year he bought the run-down Dudley Hotel in Lansdowne Place, Hove, and set about restoring its reputation as one of the finest hotels in the city.

The Brightonian remembers standing outside the hotel waiting to collect autographs from the visiting Australian Cricket team when he was young lad.

"That was about 25 years ago and at that time it used to be one of the city's premier hotels," he recalls. "I was saddened to see its decline.

"Every time I went in the building I fell in love with it more and more so it's very important for me not to restore it to its former glories but to take it forward."

David is the director Max Properties, which owns several hotels around the country, including in Bristol and Cardiff, and the Queens Hotel in King's Road, Brighton.

But this is the first time he has ventured into the "boutique hotel" market and, for the first time, not employed a management company to run the business.

"I have invested £3 million into this. It's my baby. It had suffered from a number of years of neglect and it was going to close if nothing was done. It was stuck in a bygone era.

"We wanted to create something very special for Brighton, boutique, deluxe, four-star, but we didn't want to create a designer-led hotel where minimalism was in vogue.

"The hotel was already beautiful, if a little run-down, so rather than destroy it we wanted to keep the original features and create a comfortable feel in luxury surroundings.

"We want to create six-star service so we run a beach concierge service where we provide deck chairs and people can ring up and order a hamper from the hotel and we will bring it for them."

David has already hired a top chef, Michael Savva, former executive head chef at the Hempel Hotel in London, and "poached some of the best staff in Brighton".

The hotel, renamed Lansdowne Place, will be officially relaunched in September but is now trading softly while a luxury spa is being installed to complete the lavish makeover.

Its 84 en suite bedrooms will be equipped with baths and power showers, Egyptian cotton bed linen, LCD screens and broadband internet connection.

There is also a 75sqm two-room suite with a sitting room, guest bathroom, a free-standing roll-top bath and a walk-in wet room.

David hopes the project will set the tone for a new league of "grown up" Brighton hotels which already includes Hotel Du Vin and Drakes.

He said: "I would like to think we would compete with Hotel Du Vin and we have an edge in that we are big enough to host conferences and weddings."

Even during the past 25 years the hotel has maintained its reputation as a venue for business events with seven conference rooms. These now come equipped with built-in sound systems and plasma screens and Wi-Fi wireless broadband access.

A 90-seat restaurant, The Grill at the Lansdowne, will feature classic dishes made using locally sourced organic and free range produce where possible.

Nine spa treatment spaces are in development, and will be launched within the next three months. They include a relaxation area and steam room.

Growing up in Brighton, David attended Brighton College before heading to Birmingham University to study law and business studies.

He later went to the College of Law in Surrey, where he passed the Law Society final exams.

He was then employed as a trainee solicitor and was retained at Burtsows Solicitors in Brighton upon successful completion of articles and qualification as a solicitor.

At Burstows - which later became ASB Law - he ran the commercial department at the Brighton office and was eventually appointed head of the franchising team.

Advising on all commercial transactions including franchising related matters, he also acted for a number of national and international clients as well as Brighton companies.

He built up a successful commercial department and was named in the Chambers Directory as one of the UK's top six franchising solicitors.

But despite his early successes, David was not particularly happy.

"I didn't enjoy it at all. I couldn't stand sitting behind a desk and keeping records of every six minutes of my working day. I liked being out meeting people."

So he made a break from the legal world and became managing director of Essex-based Chartwell Foods, which had a master licence to develop the Subway fast-food chain in the UK.

He was still only 26 at the time.

Under his stewardship Chartwell opened the UK's third Subway restaurant in Southend, establishing a successful UK business model for the world's biggest franchise.

He went on to open 11 more Subway restaurants across the UK, including one which achieved the highest sales volumes in Europe, raking in £10,000 per week.

He was ranked number one master licensee in Europe for franchise sales before eventually negotiating the successful sale of the business in 2001.

With some of the proceeds he took a year out to go travelling before going to work for UPS in Croydon to head its franchise department.

Now he is entrenched in the property game and keen to play his part in the renaissance of the city he grew up in.

He says: "Brighton is probably the most cosmopolitan city in the UK. It's very trendy and there is a buzz about the place and a feeling that's quite unique.

"More and more people are coming down for weekend visits and we want to offer something special and unique which will set the standard."

Wednesday, July 13, 2005