The new owner of a Bristol office that has been empty for two years has applied to turn the block into homes – hoping to succeed where the building’s previous owner failed twice.
The city council rejected two attempts by Hubb Developments to turn 19 Portland Square, in the St Paul’s district, into flats in 2022 and 2023. Now new owner Jupiter Ventures is trying for a third time, saying it has addressed the council’s reasons for the earlier refusals and proposing to turn the building into five flats.
The five-storey building was built sometime between 1789 and 1820, and although once a home has been used as an office since a “substantial refurbishment” in the 1980s.
Architects at O’Leary Goss said the building is not suitable to remain as an office, describing it as “redundant” and adding: “This office building has been vacant for over two years and all attempts to let it as an office building have failed. It still feels like a pleasant building to be in. It does, however, not suit modern methods of office and administrative work, or meet equalities legislation.”
Neither is the building suitable for conversion to a single-family house, the application added, with a market report from estate agency CJ Hole stating: “Should the property be converted into a large family home measuring in excess of 3,900 sq ft with no garden in this urban city centre location, it is in our professional opinion that you would receive very little, if any, interest given the buyer profile and housing stock in the immediate area.”
The previous plans were rejected as being harmful to the building in their execution, with criticisms also levied at the development’s cycle and refuse storage as well as the sustainability of the scheme.
Planning documents for the change-of-use application describe the new owner as “an established Bristol-based developer, who is sympathetic to the local environment”.
“It is acknowledged by all political parties, Bristol City Council reports and independent sources that Bristol has a severe housing crisis,” the planning application said.
“Politicians and members of the public have repeatedly called for empty buildings to be converted to homes. 19 Portland Square has now been empty for two years… The adverse impact of the conversion is limited, and outweighed by the benefit of converting an empty office building to five new apartments.”
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