Tenants move into flats complex

THE first tenants and occupants have started moving into a large converted office building in Runcorn.

Castle View House on East Lane was previously occupied and owned by the Department For Education but shut in 2013, with the workload relocated to Manchester.

The building was sold to developers for £900,000 after the Government refused a £1 offer from Halton Borough Council.

In 2015, permission was granted to allow the building’s conversion into 188 flats comprising 77 studios, 87 one-bed and 22 two-bed units.

Two years later the number of units was increased to 241 flats: 12 studios, 184 one-bed and 45 two-bed units, and then again increased to 248.

Properties are now being advertised online.

Prices on Zoopla include £475 per month for a two-bedroom ground-floor apartment £275 per month for a studio, both with integrated white goods and ‘finished to a high A spec’.

They are being marketed as within walking distance to Runcorn Shopping City, Halton General Hospital and as ‘ideal for commuters’.

Letting agents Leef Property Management Company has confirmed to the Weekly News that tenants have been moving in.

The building’s redevelopment contrasts against nearby East Lane House, which has been derelict for nearly two decades and mired in development limbo for several years with the saga of its sale and resale, developer collapse and legal controversy branded a ‘national disgrace’ by a Halton Lea ward councillor.

Castle View House and East Lane House are both classed as part of the area covered by the NHS Halton Healthy New Town.