Student apartment plans for landmark former cafe
A landmark former cafe building in Sunderland city centre is set to be revived as a student accommodation complex under new proposals.
Louis Cafe closed its doors for the final time in 2018 after owners took the difficult decision to cease trading.
The business first started in Ryhope in 1924 and later opened in Crowtree Road in Sunderland city centre, before moving premises to Park Lane in 1975.
After sitting vacant for a number of years, a planning application has now been lodged to re purpose the Park Lane building as student apartments.
The plans, from MT A Land Investments, aim to create retail space on the ground floor and ‘cluster’ apartments above.
The accommodation plans include two new upper storeys built directly up from the existing perimeter walls.
If approved, the building would be given a facelift with separate entrances created for the student apartments and the commercial unit at ground floor level.
According to floor plans, the development would offer more than 30 bedrooms split across the first, second and third floors and two disabled studio apartments and cycle storage on the ground floor.
There would be lounge and kitchen areas, while the basement would be sidelined for ‘communal recreation areas’ such as a gym, cinema room and games room.
Councillor Michael Dixon, who represents the St Michael’s ward, has asked for the application to be ‘called in’ to the council’s Planning and Highways (East) Committee to be discussed in public.
He said: “Louis Cafe in Park Lane is a landmark building that brought many happy memories to generations of people in Sunderland before it was closed in 2018.
“As a result I will be requesting, through the ‘calledin’ process, that the current
planning application is heard by the council’s Planning and Highways (East) Committee of which I am a member.
“I firmly believe this serves the public interest best, as it will enable the people of the city to follow this application through the committee process.”
Comments relating to the application can be submitted up until the end of Tuesday, December 15, by contacting the council’s planning department or commenting on its online planning portal.