A Hove pharmaceutical business has been granted planning permission to turn the former Beacon bingo hall in Moulsecoomb into a factory and research centre.
Custom Pharmaceuticals, of Conway Street, Hove, plans to adapt the existing single-storey warehouse-style building, on the Fairway Trading Estate, in Moulsecoomb Way.
It wants to put in doors and windows on the 31-year-old grey brick and corrugated metal building – and a mezzanine floor.
The company bought the site – once a Texas Homecare DIY store – for £4 million after a five-year search for new premises so that its pills and powders business could grow. It plans to make and package tablets and capsules and carry out research and development at the site.
The £20 million scheme was granted permission this afternoon (Wednesday 11 May) by the Brighton and Hove City Council Planning Committee in a meeting at Portslade Town Hall.
Custom Pharmaceuticals employs about 200 staff and hopes to employ 50 more within a few years. That figure could reach 300 if the business keeps growing.
The jobs range from entry level packaging to postgraduate research chemists and most staff live locally.
The company hopes to start work on the site as soon as possible and to start moving work from Hove to Moulsecoomb in about a year’s time.
It has a lease until the end of 2019 on its Conway Street base which is owned by Matsim Properties, the developer planning the £80 million Hove Gardens scheme by Hove Station.
Planning officer Kate Brocklebank told the committee today that the Beacon bingo hall closed in February. It was a Gala bingo hall before that.
She said that he old Custom Pharmaceuticals premises in Conway Street would become part of the Hove Station regeneration project.
The planning permission allows for Custom Pharma to use the building for manufacturing, offices, warehousing and research.
The firm has agreed a travel plan with the council which includes easier access to the site for pedestrians and cyclists. It will also pay for a real-time bus information display in the building to help staff see when the next buses are due.
Chief executive Nigel Richardson, who has run the business for nearly 40 years, said that the company would work with the neighbouring business, the housing contractor Mears, to help with parking. The plans indicate that there will be almost 140 car parking spaces on the site.
Three people objected to the scheme and one of them, Nicolas de Conde, told the Planning Committee: “This will take away facilities in the area that are sorely needed. Not everyone can afford the expense and time to go to the centre of Brighton.”
It would be a good site for the Bridge Community Centre and local shops, he said, with good parking facilities and ease of access.
