£45m office plan set to go before committee for decision

Friday, 23 August 2024 17:12

By Shelagh Parkinson - LDRS

Proposals to build a £45m six-storey office block in Blackpool town centre are set to go before town hall planners.

Blackpool Council’s Planning Committee is being recommended to support the application to redevelop an empty site on Talbot Road after the scheme was first unveiled in May this year.

If it gets the go-ahead, the investment would mark the fifth phase of the £350m Talbot Gateway development, led by the council and its development partner Muse.

Planning documents say the building would have capacity for more than 700 workers, with an organisation already poised to take up the space. Documents submitted with the application say the scheme would bring “high-skilled jobs on behalf of the proposed Government body”.

The site has been empty since 2014 when the previous Apollo electrical store on the land was demolished.

A report to the Planning Committee says: “The proposal would help to establish the Talbot Gateway as the northern anchor to the town centre.

“It would enhance the character of this area as a modern place for commerce and civic functions.”

It adds: “Developing this area of the town centre as an attractive, well connected and vibrant hub for business has the potential to serve as a catalyst, encouraging other organisations and operators into the town centre.”

The ground floor would comprise a recessed main entrance and reception, with offices and back of house facilities, including plant rooms, refuse store, cycle and staff changing facilities. The footprint of the six-storey building would fill much of the site and would have a concrete core with a steel frame.

Documents also say steps must be taken to ensure construction work does not impact on the nearby railway line.

The committee is being recommended to support the application (reference 24/0215) but delegate final approval to the council’s head of development management subject to all the conditions being laid out.

It would be the second significant town centre office development in recent times, with work currently underway to build a £100m office block on nearby Cookson Street which will house more than 3,000 civil servants and is expected to open in 2025.