The owner of a former Brighton casino is playing for high stakes today, asking planners for more time to build a hotel on the Sergeant Yorke’s site.
But neutral observers believe that it’s a safe bet because Brighton and Hove City Council is keen to improve the area.
Planning permission – to turn the old casino in Queen’s Road into a hotel – expired last month.
Even so, estate agent Colliers International is offering the site near Brighton Station for sale for £2 million and advertising it as currently having planning permission.
The site was put up for sale after the owner Pedersen, the hotel company, went into administration last year.
But the site will be worth more – and is more likely to find a buyer – if the planning permission to build a 140-bed hotel is extended.
Julian Hodge Bank has put in the planning application. The bank is believed to have held a mortgage charge on the property.
Permission was originally granted in January 2008 to a previous owner, Accor, which owns the Ibis hotel chain, for an 11-storey hotel with 140 bedrooms.
The council’s planning committee is being advised to grant permission because “the principle of the development has been accepted and the site and its surroundings have not significantly changed since permission was granted”.
Much of the area is rundown and the council wants this “gateway” to the town to be revived.
The building itself was originally a garage when it opened in 1908. It became Sergeant Yorke’s Casino in 1971 and closed in 2001. It has been derelict ever since.
The planning committee, which will decide its fate, is due to meet at Hove Town Hall at 2pm today.
