Blackpool to approve Multiversity, hotel, apartments

A 350,000 sq ft education facility, Fragrance Group’s 143-bedroom hotel, and 89 seafront apartments are all tipped to progress when the council’s planning committee meets next week.

Multiversity 

The three acre site is located close to the Talbot Gateway regeneration area. Credit: via council documents

Developer: Blackpool Council

Architect: Hawkins\Brown

Planner: Avison Young

Planning reference: 23/0830

The Multiversity project, which has received nearly £50m of government funding, is aimed at addressing Blackpool’s skills and productivity gap.

A rundown three-acre chunk of Talbot Gateway is to be flattened to make way for the 350,000 sq ft education facility, under plans submitted by Blackpool Council late last year.

The council has said that the Multiversity would “act as a beacon to promote higher-level skills, engage employers in curriculum co-design and change perceptions of the town”.

The Multiversity would offer courses in automation, mobility, artificial intelligence, data, population ageing, and sustainability.

The planning application has been submitted in hybrid form with full planning consent sought for the demolition of the existing buildings on the site.

Outline consent is sought for the Multiversity buildings. The first phase would feature up to 221,000 sq ft (GIA) of education development. The second phase would see another 130,000 sq ft (GIA) of education or office space added.

The Multiversity would be leased by the council to Blackpool & Fylde College from April 2026.

It is hoped that the facility will be in operation for the 2026/27 academic year, once the college has relocated from its existing Park Road Campus.

The project team features architect Hawkins\Brown, structural engineer Civic Engineers, services engineer and sustainability consultant KJ Tait, project manager and cost consultant CBRE, fire engineer Hydrock, acoustician Hydrock, facade engineer Fortis, planning consultant Avison Young, and environmental consultant Egnio.

The proposals form the latest phase of the wider regeneration of Talbot Gateway, a project that has already seen the delivery of a 120,000 sq ft office, a 60,000 sq ft Sainsbury’s, and a 600-space multi-storey car park.

Construction of a 144-bedroom Holiday Inn is due to wrap up next spring, while the creation of a 200,000 sq ft hub for the Department for Work and Pensions is underway.

Promenade hotel

The scheme is the developer’s third in the town. Credit: via planning documents

Developer: Fragrance Group

Architect and planner: Falconer Chester Hall

Planning reference: 23/0848

The Singapore-based developer wants to build a 143-bedroom hotel where three bed and breakfasts once stood.

Fragrance Group was given consent last year to demolish St Chads Hotel, Lyric Hotel, and Regency Apartments to pave the way for a new hotel.

The four-star replacement would span six storeys.

Geospatial Engineering Services and Civil Remediation are on the professional team.

Hydrock is also on the design team, providing various consultancy services including in acoustics, civil and structural engineering, MEP, fire, transport, and water environment.

Fragrance bought the 90-bedroom St Chads Hotel in 2018 for an undisclosed sum, its third acquisition on Blackpool’s promenade. The company also owns the neighbouring Lyndene Hotel and the Imperial Hotel, which is located in North Shore.

The company also owns Liverpool’s former Municipal Buildings, which was recently redeveloped into a £40m MGallery hotel, and Town House Hotel in Manchester.

Promenade apartments 

Plans for the scheme were lodged two years ago. Credit: via planning documents

Developer: Coastway Developments

Architect: David Cox Architects

Planner: Smith & Love Planning Consultants

Planning reference: 22/0168 and 22/0178

Skye, Colwyn and Headlands hotels on New South Promenade would be redeveloped into apartments under Isle of Man-based Coastway’s plans.

The Ruppert family, which owns the hotels, lodged a brace of applications in 2022 seeking consent to build two apartment blocks at either end of a crescent of buildings in the South Shore area of Blackpool.

At the northern end of the site, the first development would provide 49 apartments replacing the vacant Skye and Colwyn hotels on the corner of New South Promenade and Burlington Road West.

At the southern end of the crescent, the second development would replace the Headlands Hotel, providing 40 apartments on the corner of Harrowside West and New South Promenade.

The schemes are being delivered by companies controlled by the Ruppert family named Coastway and Headlands respectively.

The developments form the next phase of the crescent’s regeneration, following the creation of the Hilton by Hampton in 2016.

A plot next to the Hilton off Wimbourne Place is also the subject of redevelopment proposals. Under plans lodged by NSP Property, the Waldorf, Henderson and Kimberley hotels would be knocked down to make way for a 63-apartment scheme.