Proposals to bring the former Park Hotel back into use are going back before councillors for a third time this week.
A legal wrangle over money due to be paid as part of what’s known as a section 106 agreement as well as who will maintain parts of open space within the development mean the scheme could be thrown out.
The Heaton Group won approval in February last year for the plans to convert the grade-II listed building back into a hotel as well as to build a new apartment blocks next door to the current building.
Read more: Preston secures extra £1.5million in government funds – but where will it go in the city?
But documents submitted to the city council’s planning committee – due to meet on Thursday – say unless a financial contribution of £8,500 towards employment skills monitoring is secured and an agreement about the ‘future management and maintenance of open space’ the multi-million pound redevelopment scheme may have to go back to the drawing board.
A time limit of 31 October would be set for the developers and the city’s direct of development and housing to reach an agreement or the scheme would be refused planning permission.
Work has yet to begin on the Park Hotel site, in East Cliff which overlooks Avenham and Miller Park, despite in October last year a deal being struck to waive the need for the apartment blocks to cater for the city’s affordable housing needs.
During the meeting in October it was confirmed the development group had yet to take control of the building itself – currently owned by the Local Pensions Partnership – and wouldn’t do so until the full planning permission had been secured.
Councillors are due to meet this Thursday (2 October) to consider the latest application.
What’s planned for the Park Hotel?
The developers, who have been behind the Bishopsgate scheme and The Exchange close to Preston Bus Station, want the Park Hotel itself to become a 92-room apart-hotel with a gym, co-working space and ground floor café-restaurant.
Two new blocks, both over six storeys, would be build close-by and include 146 apartments and 93 apartments respectively.
The nearby number eight East Cliff, which is also grade-II listed, would be brought back into use as six luxury apartments as part of the new complex.
Security concerns
There have been growing concerns about the security of the empty building, which was last used in 2011 as county council offices.
In August fire crews were called to the former hotel site twice in the space of two weeks to reports of arson attempts.
And in recent years there’s been a spate of anti-social behaviour linked to the building despite security fencing and other security measures being imposed.
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