Turnberry upgrade plans in doubt

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The second phase of the redevelopment of the Turnberry resort is in doubt.

Work had been due to start in November but the hotel's management company said it now did not know when the next set of renovations would begin.

More than £30m was spent on Turnberry ahead of the Open Championship but much of the hotel is still to be upgraded.

The hotel is owned by a subsidiary of Dubai World which last month said it needed more time to repay billions of pounds of debt.

The hotel has suffered from a downturn in the corporate entertainment market and made a number of redundancies in the autumn.

First phase

The resort's 12 luxury lodges have been closed for the winter which puts about 70 bedrooms out of action.

Turnberry was bought by a subsidiary of the Dubai World group last October for £55m from the Starwood group.

As part of the deal, Starwood signed a contract to continue managing the hotel for the next 50 years and it oversaw the first phase of the refurbishment.

The internationally-acclaimed designer Mary Fox Linton, was brought in to lead the project to restore the 103-year-old hotel to its former glory.

Until recently, the Turnberry resort was owned by the Dubai World subsidiary, Leisurecorp.

After some restructuring, ownership moved to another of the group's companies, Istithmar World.

A spokesman for Istithmar declined to comment on the resort's future.