Plymouth’s Drake’s Island is on sale just five years after it was bought for £6m. Morgan Phillips, who owns the 6.4-acre island in the Sound, has decided to sell up and is asking for offers.
The historic and fortified island has planning permission for a 43-bed hotel to be built on it, but it is being marketed as having “many potential alternative uses”. Morgan Phillips, managing director of Plymouth Sound Properties Ltd, bought the island in 2019 and has opened it up for visits, performances and even filming. Just 18 months ago said he was looking to build two hotels, plus a museum, heritage, and a well being centre on the island, and work with partners on environmental and marine projects.
In 2020 he of the island at £17m to £22m, including the undisclosed cost of buying the island, which had a guide price of £6m. But he has now put the freehold on the market with Ali Rana, head of national investment at commercial property marketer Carter Jonas, saying: “Morgan has taken it as far as he can and it is time for someone else to progress the future of the island.” Carter Jonas is now marketing what it calls an “extremely rare opportunity to purchase a consented development site off the coast of Plymouth”.
The island houses a mixture of disused fortifications and military accommodation built over hundreds of years having been fortified originally as a defence against the French and Spanish. It ceased being used for military purposes after World War Two. A je.
