RADICAL plans to transform the "gateway" to Southampton at Charlotte Place into a multi-million-pound hotel and office complex have moved a step forward.

Irish hotel group Jurys Doyle have won the contract to operate the 257-bedroom hotel - the largest in Southampton - when it opens in 2005.

Work to transform the area into hotel and office space costing about £18.5m is due to begin this year.

The 12-story building will include a restaurant, bar, cafe and almost 9,000 square feet of meeting rooms.

The development will also include 80,000 square feet of office space and apartments, together with an underground car park for up to 160 cars. Work has already begun to transform the road network and underpasses surrounding the planned new development.

Two months ago, city council bosses unveiled a £160m building programme to take Southampton into the 21st century.

Eighty public car parking spaces will remain at Charlotte Place and a new car park is being built at nearby Salisbury Street.

Pat McCann, chief executive of Jurys Doyle Hotel Group, said: "We believe that Southampton is an excellent location for our Jurys Inn brand. The Southampton greater area has the fifth largest catchment population in the UK, amounting to two million people, and has an attractive mix of corporate and leisure business.

"The opening of Jurys Inn Southampton will bring to 18 the number of Jurys Inns in Ireland and the UK and demonstrates the continued confidence in our development strategy of expanding the Jurys Inns brand.

"This decision to enter into an operating lease is in line with the group's financing strategy of developing hotels and inns through a combination of outright ownership and operating leases."