Gape returns with revised Blackpool resi
With earlier plans scaled down for apartments in a former Sports Direct close to Blackpool Tower, the developer has lodged a fresh application for the building’s upper floors.
Plans came forward in January for 65 flats across 75,000 sq ft formerly occupied by Sports Direct, across five upper floors above The Albert & The Lion pub on Blackpool’s promenade. The building dates from the 1930s, and was originally a Woolworth’s.
This proposal, submitted by advisor Grace Machin Planning & Property, included 10 two-bedroom flats and 55 one-bedroom flats.
However, discussions with council officers on matters including natural light led to that application being reduced to cover just the two floors directly above the JD Wetherspoon-operated pub, with prior approval given by officers in late March.
Those two floors will see 17 one-bedroom and seven two-bedroom flats developed.
In its planning statement for the new application, covering the third, fourth and fifth floors, Grace Machin said that no external alterations are proposed, and that the intention is to utilise the existing internal layout, with minimal alterations. Access would come from the existing ground floor entrance off Bank Hey Street.
Thirty eight apartments are proposed: 15 of them one-beds, and 23 two-beds, meaning that the overall scheme size has been reduced by three from the initial 65 homes proposed.
Bering located within Blackpool’s inner area, the site is exempt from affordable housing provision, but according to planning documents, the applicant is expecting to pay a contribution to public open space of around £56,000.
The plans are submitted on behalf of Blackpool Global, a vehicle set up by Nottingham-based Gape Equity – among Gape’s previous schemes is a project to redevelop the upper floors of a building in Birkenhead’s Grange Road in 2019.
Documents relating to the scheme can be viewed on Blackpool Council’s planning portal with the reference 25/0501.
