The government is to be asked to support a £300 million revamp at Brighton Marina with up to £20 million of public money.
The scheme is expected to create 1,000 extra homes, replacement leisure and car parking facilities and hundreds of jobs.
The broad details already form part of the City Plan for Brighton and Hove which was signed off by the government earlier this year.
The new Marina scheme was discussed by the Greater Brighton Economic Board and included in its project pipeline this morning (Tuesday 19 April).
A report to the economic board described the project as the South Site, with developer Land Securities expected to put in most of the funding for the £300 million scheme.
But the site was described as being in the inner harbour at the western end of the Marina, close to where hundreds of homes are currently being built.
Nick Hibberd, from Brighton and Hove City Council, said the project would create an estimated 385 permanent jobs and a similar number of temporary jobs during the eight-year construction phase. A
Mr Hibberd said: “It would require some local growth funding.
“It will help the city council deliver its housing requirement in the City Plan.
“Improving access in and out of Brighton Marina is a key consideration.”
He said that this was even more important with the plan to move Brighton’s conference centre to Black Rock.
“There are,” he said, “discussions between the various parties. It’s not easy. It’s quite a constrained area and the ramp’s quite a complicated structure but we’d be missing an opportunity if we didn’t explore the possibility of improving the access.”
Government funding for this sort of scheme came up in the budget last month when the Chancellor George Osborne announced £1.8 billion extra funding for “the growth deal”.
The growth deal is government funding to support housebuilding, training and job creation, and transport and technological infrastructure projects such as superfast broadband networks.
The money will be allocated to local projects by an organisation called Coast to Capital (C2C), the local enterprise partnership (LEP).
Fourteen LEPs across the country are being asked to bid competitively for the money, with a civil servant, Philip Carr, warning the board that not everyone would win.
The initial application for support will be made by the Greater Brighton Economic Board to C2C by Friday 29 April.
