Final planning hurdle for Blackpool’s £65m Multiversity comes into view
Blackpool Council has been recommended to approve reserved matters for the more than 116,000 sq ft educational facility, which would bring almost 3,000 students and staff into the town centre when Blackpool and The Fylde College relocates to the site.
The £65m Multiversity has been designed by Hawkins\Brown, and Morgan Sindall is set to build the project.
More than 70 courses for higher education students would be offered at the facility, intended to directly link students to local employment needs.
If the first phase is approved as expected on April 1, work on the building rising to five storeys can go ahead.
Plans show that the ground floor would host an entrance lobby, café, broadcast studio, presentation space, and workspaces. The remaining floors comprise computer rooms, teaching spaces, offices, and laboratories.
Studio spaces would be available on the fourth floor.
Students would have access to a roof terrace at the south of the building, while the ground floor would be surrounded by a public realm designed by Re-form landscape architecture.
Blackpool Council has been buying up land for the scheme off Cookson Street, George Street, Grosvenor Street, and Milbourne Street over the past two year. The council has consent to acquire the remaining plots with a CPO if required.
Currently, the three-acre site comprises two blocks of two-storey residential properties, with some ground floor commercial uses fronting Cookson Street.
The two blocks are divided centrally by Charles St – phase one only concerns half of the space – the remaining land has been identified for phase two.
The project team features structural engineer Civic Engineers, services engineer and sustainability consultant KJ Tait, project manager and cost consultant CBRE, fire engineer Hydrock, acoustician Hydrock, façade engineer Fortis, planning consultant Avison Young, and environmental consultant Egnio.
To view the reserved matters application, use the planning reference number 24/0495 in Blackpool Council’s planning portal.
