More student flats planned
EMPTY INDUSTRIAL BUILDINGS COULD BE DEMOLISHED
VACANT city buildings could be flattened to make way for more student flats.
Two student blocks are earmarked for land off Huntingdon Street, one for Union Road and another in St Mark’s Street – with a communal courtyard between them.
It marks the second phase of a wider student accommodation plan for land under the ownership of the Purico group of companies – with 249 studio flats planned under the latest proposals.
John Taylor, who is managing the development for Purico, said: “Everything will be demolished – everything on Union Road, Curzon Street that we own and St Mark’s Street.
“The frontage buildings on Huntingdon Street won’t be demolished at the moment so that’s the old nightclub and the pub we don’t own.
“It’s everything behind there, really.
“It will involve the demolition and clearance of empty buildings. They’ve all been empty 10 years.
“We have gone for a much larger size of unit because we were asked by the council to consider future possible non-student uses so they could be converted more easily into
Virtually every building that is going up in that area is a student development Councillor Dave Liversidge
alternative [residential] uses.”
He added: “You need to look at an August completion date for anything – this is a 15-18-month project.
“So even with the best will in the world it would be summer 2021 demolition aiming for it to be ready for August 2023. That’s the earliest.”
The land comprises vacant industrial buildings. The late Victorian properties which front Union Road are adjoined by a two-storey building which was converted to a shisha lounge. A cleared site to the east, on the corner of Curzon Street, has permission for a five-storey student block.
But Labour city councillor Dave Liversidge, who represents Ann’s, said there were “too many student developments in the area”.
“There’s no point in objecting to every one. I am not objecting to that one particularly,” he said.
“It’s sort of a post-industrial area that has been changed, obviously with the Aldi being built underneath that other development.
“I have got nothing against students at all.
But, he added, “virtually every building that is going up in that area is a student development”.
Other large student complexes in the area include the Glasshouse in Union Road.