Muse hunts contractor for £50m Blackpool office
The developer is looking to appoint a construction firm to build a 215,000 sq ft office building on King Street as part of the £100m Talbot Gateway regeneration project.
Muse Developments has submitted plans to redevelop the 2.4-acre site in Blackpool, bounded by Deansgate, King Street, Cookson Street, Charles Street and East Topping Street.
Under the proposals, several properties on King Street would be demolished to make way for the construction of the seven-storey, £50m office building opposite Talbot Car Park.
In September, Blackpool Council outlined its intention to exercise compulsory purchase powers to acquire land and properties on the site, in order to bring forward the project.
As well as the office building, the scheme also includes a medical centre and the conversion of The Hop pub into a dental surgery.
The site was originally earmarked for a car park under the Talbot Gateway masterplan, but the refurbishment of Talbot Road multistorey car park during the first phase of the project prompted a rethink and the site was identified as being suitable for a commercial development.
Make Architects designed the scheme and Avison Young is the planning consultant.
It is the latest in Muse and Blackpool Council’s Talbot Gateway scheme, which has already seen the construction of a 125,000 sq ft Sainsbury’s supermarket close to Blackpool North train station and a 120,000 sq ft office development, No1 Bickerstaffe Square.
The second phase of Talbot Gateway is currently underway and involves the demolition of the former Wilko store opposite the train station to make way for a 144-bedroom Holiday Inn hotel.
Not needed. The cash needs to be invested in areas more needy. Blackpool doesn’t need more office space, it needs more habital space.
By BayernQ
Better use would be to build affordable houses for families and first time buyers. Put some young families back in the town centre.
By Hugh N
Why aren’t old businesses being converted to affordable accommodation. The boarded up shops along Central Drive, and other places in the town should be pulled down, rebuilt, or refurbished.
If the council has the jurisdiction to order a compulsory purchase on property, why not prioritise housing before office space.
By C Meadows
Plenty of empty offices in ground floor of new council offices.
What business would want to rent offices when the current government line has been to work from home.
Council now owns Hounds Hill most of it is empty why not repurpose the building.
By Albert Hall