News: Approval for £6m Rotherham regeneration scheme
Planners at Rotherham Council have approved proposals for a £6m mixed use development to replace burnt-out buildings in Rotherham town centre.
The decision is seen as key to the authority's attempts to secure the properties on Corporation Street using a Compulsory Purchase Order (CPO).
Located on a key gateway into the town centre, the burnt-out buildings that make up 3-7 Corporation Street have been a long-standing eyesore in Rotherham. Khyber Pass Indian Restaurant (no.7) suffered fire damage in December 2005 with the ‘Envy’ night club above (no.7) suffering a similar fate in April 2007 (affecting the retail units below). The Muskaan Indian Restaurant (no. 3-5) was also fire damaged in July 2011. All properties were taken out of the ratings listings soon after the fires due to the properties being uninhabitable. Repairs were not made to any of the properties and the businesses never reopened.
Council officers are looking to acquire the properties using powers provided to enable acquiring authorities to compulsorily purchase land to carry out a function which Parliament has decided is in the public interest.
In this instance the buildings would be demolished and a private sector developer would be brought in to build a £6m residential-led, mixed-use development, comprising of apartments with commercial space on the ground floor. A planning application was submitted by Rotherham Council at the start of 2023.
Designed by AHR Architects, the proposals show that the current buildings would be demolished and replaced by a mixed use building, between two and four storeys in height, comprising 19 residential flats and three units totalling 1,238 sq ft of commercial floorspace, plus access, external landscaping and car parking.
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Slightly amended through the planning process, the plans are for a mix of 1-bed (7) and 2-bed (12) flats with either garden space on the ground floor or juliet balconies on the upper floors. Access is retained through the site to service the buildings on Bridgegate to the rear and plans include three parking spaces and space for 40 cycles.
The site is within the town centre conservation area and Historic England and the council's conservation officer have no objections as the designs have restricted the height of the buildings so that views, especially of Rotherham Minster, are to be respected. From the North, the building would step down towards the Chapel on the Bridge.
The plans were approved without going to the council's planning board as a quick determination was required to tie in with the ongoing CPO. Rothbiz reported last month that the authority had issued the legal documents for the order.
Council documents explain the next steps: "The project will bring the site into public ownership and demolish the current, derelict buildings, offering a cleared site for redevelopment. Partnership with the private sector (preferred option) will secure the delivery of a residential-led, mixed use development. The Council has worked closely with local developers to deliver similar successful schemes across the Town Centre, following a ‘build to rent’ template. This delivery model has proven successful on other sites (Old Market, Keppel Wharf, Imperial Buildings) located in close proximity to 3-7 Corporation Street."
Commercial property firm, Eddisons, provided a viability report for Rotherham Council. It concludes that the development costs associated with the project comes in at £5.94m with the completed properties worth around £2.12m, a gap of £3.8m showing that the development would be unviable. However significant external funding has already been secured to address the gap - £2,647,664 from the Town Deal, £537,724 from the Levelling Up Fund and £75,000 via the South Yorkshire Mayoral Combined Authority (SYMCA) gainshare fund.
Images: RMBC / AHR
The decision is seen as key to the authority's attempts to secure the properties on Corporation Street using a Compulsory Purchase Order (CPO).
Located on a key gateway into the town centre, the burnt-out buildings that make up 3-7 Corporation Street have been a long-standing eyesore in Rotherham. Khyber Pass Indian Restaurant (no.7) suffered fire damage in December 2005 with the ‘Envy’ night club above (no.7) suffering a similar fate in April 2007 (affecting the retail units below). The Muskaan Indian Restaurant (no. 3-5) was also fire damaged in July 2011. All properties were taken out of the ratings listings soon after the fires due to the properties being uninhabitable. Repairs were not made to any of the properties and the businesses never reopened.
Council officers are looking to acquire the properties using powers provided to enable acquiring authorities to compulsorily purchase land to carry out a function which Parliament has decided is in the public interest.
In this instance the buildings would be demolished and a private sector developer would be brought in to build a £6m residential-led, mixed-use development, comprising of apartments with commercial space on the ground floor. A planning application was submitted by Rotherham Council at the start of 2023.
Designed by AHR Architects, the proposals show that the current buildings would be demolished and replaced by a mixed use building, between two and four storeys in height, comprising 19 residential flats and three units totalling 1,238 sq ft of commercial floorspace, plus access, external landscaping and car parking.
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Slightly amended through the planning process, the plans are for a mix of 1-bed (7) and 2-bed (12) flats with either garden space on the ground floor or juliet balconies on the upper floors. Access is retained through the site to service the buildings on Bridgegate to the rear and plans include three parking spaces and space for 40 cycles.
The site is within the town centre conservation area and Historic England and the council's conservation officer have no objections as the designs have restricted the height of the buildings so that views, especially of Rotherham Minster, are to be respected. From the North, the building would step down towards the Chapel on the Bridge.
The plans were approved without going to the council's planning board as a quick determination was required to tie in with the ongoing CPO. Rothbiz reported last month that the authority had issued the legal documents for the order.
Council documents explain the next steps: "The project will bring the site into public ownership and demolish the current, derelict buildings, offering a cleared site for redevelopment. Partnership with the private sector (preferred option) will secure the delivery of a residential-led, mixed use development. The Council has worked closely with local developers to deliver similar successful schemes across the Town Centre, following a ‘build to rent’ template. This delivery model has proven successful on other sites (Old Market, Keppel Wharf, Imperial Buildings) located in close proximity to 3-7 Corporation Street."
Commercial property firm, Eddisons, provided a viability report for Rotherham Council. It concludes that the development costs associated with the project comes in at £5.94m with the completed properties worth around £2.12m, a gap of £3.8m showing that the development would be unviable. However significant external funding has already been secured to address the gap - £2,647,664 from the Town Deal, £537,724 from the Levelling Up Fund and £75,000 via the South Yorkshire Mayoral Combined Authority (SYMCA) gainshare fund.
Images: RMBC / AHR
19 comments:
High rise fetishist incoming in 3... 2... 1...
Before he does... It's good to see that something is finally happening on this site. But to say this is a gateway site for town centre, I would have thought that RMBC could have come up with something a little more imaginative than the proposed prison block style of flats.
Many on here have said that Rotherham town centre is little more than a ghetto these days (I tend to agree), but what does it say about the town if the first thing people see when they enter isn't a visionary regeneration scheme, but a bland, uninspiring block of flats?
Rotherham council wasting land and lost council tax revenues by nit building higher is the issue!
Don't know who guy is referring to regards height fetish....but have to agree it's about time this idea of view of minster is put to bed, towns /cities up and down land have historic buildings,yet it doesn't stop proper high rise centre development,the council really haven't got a clue.
Parking for 3 cars and 40 cycles!Is this Rotherham or Amsterdam!
Sounds very silly. Maybe, they should be for mobility scooters
I think I know what Freud would have made of this unreasonable attraction to high rise buildings
Well, the plans look Double Dutch, so it's probably Rotterdam.
The disadvantages of high rise residential development are many and we'll catalogued and although I am often a fierce critic of the council their stance against high rise dwellings is one I support.
If done carefully, high rise commercial and office developments can be advantageous but there is simply not the demand for such
property In Rotherham. So can we just drop this red herring of a topic?
Instead of high rise, I'd go below ground, leaving a flat surface to keep the view of the minster, maybe put a pocket park there and then have lots of tiny underground bunkers for people to live in, who needs windows? They'll be cheaper to heat as well. Just make sure there are enough bike racks.
Methinks it's you who should be underground
I love this forum!
About time the council did something about the eyesore that was the Pecks building on Fitzwilliam Road
Could do with the German bombers doing a raid and starting over again,with a more condensed realistic town centre. Nobody wants to visit Rotherham as there are no shops of note. As said before more like a ghetto
Steady on! It's only been abandoned for 50 years. It still has it's "destroyed by fire, foul play suspected" era to go through first.
Why German bombers? Surely Russian ones would kill more low lifes
Go to likes of Salford, thousands of quality high rise apartments,with leisure around them,works perfect there.Should try leaving Rotherham now and again Even Doncaster and Barnsley are building up.We can't keep building on every bit of green space,wasting it on house's,we need many more homes on smaller area.Were a small island, building upwards is the only way to provide homes and also protect the environment and wildlife.
Business News reported a mixed but optimistic picture on the employment front in the town centre. On the downside, a further 15 retail units closed last month with the loss of 48 jobs. This was offset, however, by the opening of a shoe bank shop in the indoor market creating openings for one part time worker and 3 volunteers
And as part of the levelling up agenda, the railway station is getting a new toilet brush.
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