HOPES are growing that a half-finished North-East hotel complex may find a saviour.

Vendors hoping to sell the partially-built hotel development at Teesside Airport say they have received "significant interest" in the site.

The complex was put up for sale by the Mirage Hotel and Leisure group last month.

Planning permission for a 120 bedroom hotel and a 80,000sq ft heath facility had been granted three years ago.

But long delays and problems associated with the development of Teesside airport plus problems surrounding solutions to sewerage facilities have led the company to pull the plug last month.

At the time a spokesman for the company explained: "The major shareholders of Mirage have decided, due to long delays and problems associated with the development of Teesside Airport, that they are to sell their shares in the company.

"They do not now feel that they have the resources to continue until the remaining difficulties that have prevented them from progressing are resolved."

The site was then put up for sale last month by Mirage with the sale being handled by Leeds-based estate agents Colliers Conrad Ritblat and Erdman (CCRE).

Andrew Watt, director of CCRE, said: "We have already received considerable interest over the month of August in the site.

"Inquiries have been made from a range of sources, both local and regional and we are quite optimistic that a sale will be achieved."

Developers had been seeking a solution to the problem of inadequate sewerage facilities at the airport which had been holding up the work. The hotel complex was being built to coincide with the south side development at Teesside Airport.

But the £340m development, that would have made the airport one of the biggest freight handling centres in Europe has faced difficulties of its own.

In May the scheme was branded "unrealistic" by airport management who admitted it was unlikely to go ahead on such an ambitious scale.

As a result of the freight village blow, the airport has now been placed at the heart of a £26m economic regeneration of the Tees Valley.

A £6m partnership between the airport, development agency One NorthEast, and The Tees Valley Partnership was announced as part of a package of measures.

As part of the partnership plan, a major feasibility study will assess the needs of the international airport for the next 30 years.