THERE are high hopes for a major eyesore in Pembroke Dock after it was sold at auction for more than three times the guide price.

The former Commodore Hotel site, Admirality Way, fetched £85,000– some £60,000 more than the guide price.

The former hotel, a Grade II listed building, and outbuildings occupy a site of around 0.56 hectares in the town’s Royal Dockyard.

In August 2009, planning permission was conditionally approved for the re-instatement and extension of the hotel. This permission was offered as part of the sale.

A spokesman for London-based auction firm Allsop said it could not disclose who was in the process of buying the site and that the sale would not be complete until around August 14.

But the news has been greeted with some excitement in the town.

Pembroke Dock mayor Cllr Jane Phillips told the Western Telegraph: “I would welcome anything that brought the Commodore Hotel site back up to its original state, anything which sympathetically brought it back to life.

“It would be great to see a productive use for it.

“As you enter the dockyard gates it just lets down the dockyard and I’m happy for it to be restored to its former glory.

“Whatever use is made of it will be positive.

“Anything has got to be better than what’s there now.”

Market ward town Cllr Peter Kraus also welcomed the news.

“This is fantastic news for the dockyard,” he said. “The Commodore Hotel has been an eyesore for many, many years.

“This will enhance the dockyard and enhance Pembroke Dock before next year’s bicentenary.”

Local county councillor Brian Hall said it was important that work got under way on the site and that he hoped the new owners would renovate the site and bring it back to its former glory.

He added: “I’m delighted. This is the last piece of the jigsaw in the dockyard.

“Hopefully the new owners will make some progress with the site and not, as many people do at auction, sit and wait for site to go up in value.

“If it was reopened as a hotel that would be ideal.”