FROM hi-de-hi to high rollers, a former riverside holiday camp at Christchurch is set to rise as a luxury hotel and apartments complex.

Investors are being wooed to sink up to £500,000 to secure one of 12 penthouse suites on the top floor of the three-storey Captain's Club Hotel due to open in the summer of 2005 on the former Pontins site at Wick Ferry.

Developers of the complex, which was controversially granted planning permission by Christchurch council in August, insist the apartments will not be time share, but 'fractional ownership' suites.

Tim Lloyd, managing director of Platinum One Hotels which will own and operate the Captain's Club, said the concept while new to the UK is sold extensively overseas as a leisure and investment opportunity.

Owners paying between £350,000 and £525,000 for a 125-year lease of the suites will be restricted to a maximum occupancy of 44 weeks a year and when not in private use the fully-fitted riverfront apartments complete with mooring will be let as part of the main four-star hotel.

Sixty per cent of the income from the lettings of the suites will be pooled and shared between the owners who are forecast to earn up to £35,000 a year by 2009.

Investors will also receive club membership discounts on the hotel's other facilities including spa, preferential rates and invitation to club owners' special events.

Work is expected to start in April on building the 16-bed hotel and already six of the 12 'lifestyle' suites have been sold.

Mr Lloyd, a past president of Christchurch Chamber of Trade and owner of the former Splinters restaurant in the town, said: "This is a fantastic project and brings a first class facility to Christchurch - and a first class concept to the British hospitality industry as a whole."