Kentish Gazette Canterbury & District
Developer pays £5.8m for school
A former Christian adult school which closed due to a lack of students has been snapped up by a property developer for £5.8 million.
The Franciscan International Study Centre in Canterbury has been bought by Empiric Student Property, which is acquiring a portfolio of student accommodation in the city.
The new owner of the site on Giles Lane, which is near but not part of the University of Kent, will shortly advertise accommodation at its five townhouses – with 50 beds – through management firm Hello Student.
It said a separate 16,200 sq ft building on the three-acre site has “development potential”.
The deal is the second acquisition the company has made in the city, after it bought the 79-bed Pavilion Court apartment block above Sainsbury’s in St Dunstan’s Street for £9.2 million in September.
The company is in discussions with Canterbury County Council about future planning permission for a student accommo- dation scheme of more than 325 beds on the study centre site.
It hopes to start work by the third quarter of next year.
The revamp would include a mix of studios, two and three-bed apartments and six-bed townhouses, with a large common room, work and reading rooms, a gym and offices.
Empiric chief executive Paul Hadaway said: “Canterbury represents a prime opportunity for the group with a low level of private accommodation serving the student market.”
The study centre revealed it was closing in March after its principal admitted it no longer had any students.
Father Thomas Reist said people opening Franciscan schools in their own countries had meant “over the years, the numbers travelling from abroad to us has continued to fall”.