THE only way is up for Bournemouth’s £60million Hilton hotel development, following the completion of almost a year’s worth of extensive groundworks.

The Terrace Mount development – which will consist of a top-end Hilton hotel, a three-star hotel and a block of flats – is now making its presence felt on the town’s skyline.

Contractors have spent almost a year digging down to create the space for a pay and display basement car park. Now this phase has been completed, they are building upwards, giving residents a better idea of what the finished development will look like.

Work is being carried out on all three blocks simultaneously and the three-star hotel is currently the most advanced, at around five floors high. The apartment block at the top of Upper Terrace Road is two storeys high and the luxury hotel, which Hilton hopes will be a five-star, is also about two storeys high.

Peter Tisdale, of the London-based THAT Group which is spearheading the development, said residents would see quick progress during this stage of the building work.

“Completing the groundworks for the car park is a significant milestone and it gets us through what’s technically the worst part of the development,” he said.

“For the local neighbours it’s a significant step because it means that we’ve finished the stage where we need to have lorries taking away all the earth which has been dug up.

“This is the most exciting stage now. Every day you can see something being built that you can see from the pavement. We are now at the stage where the next three to four months will be the most quickly changing landscape.”

The overall completion date is the end of next summer.