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Marks & Spencer Oxford Street redev approved despite environmental concerns

Marks & Spencer has been given the green light to demolish its flagship UK store and replace it with a new office-led development.

The retailer, whose physical stores have struggled amid a switch to online shopping in recent years, will bulldoze the 90-year-old building at the Marble Arch end of Oxford Street, W1, after Westminster City Council approved the plans by five votes to one last night (23 November).

In its place will come a nine-storey mixed-use development (Use Class E) comprising retail, café/restaurant, office and gym space, as well as a new pedestrian arcade through the centre of the building and public realm improvements.

The scheme, designed by architects at Pilbrow & Partners, will include just two-and-a-half floors of shop space. Above, the offices will provide accommodation for 4,000 workers, while the gym will be located in the basement.

Concerns have been raised around the environmental cost of redeveloping the historic building rather than retrofitting it.

The new development would contain 39,500 tonnes of embodied carbon. That compares with a £13m project announced last week by Westminster City Council to save 1,700 tonnes of carbon per year, meaning that this week’s planning approval effectively cancels out 23 years of these carbon savings in one go.

Proponents of the scheme said that 90% of the existing buildings can be recycled, and the new scheme would be significantly more efficient in operation than the current three buildings up for demolition.

Nonetheless, the new building does not achieve net-zero carbon, meaning that it does not meet the requirements of Westminster’s own City Plan, and requires a carbon offset payment of £1,198,134 to compensate for this.

However, planning officers said the existing site has “severe shortcomings”, and that redevelopment would “provide significantly improved accommodation and facilitate commercial growth on the West End International frontage”.

To send feedback, e-mail alex.daniel@eg.co.uk or tweet @alexmdaniel or @EGPropertyNews

Photo © Neil Hall/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock

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