An office block that has been empty since it was built 10 years ago could be turned into housing if the council grants planning permission for a £2 million project.
Rayford Tower LLP, which was set up in Hove eight years ago, has submitted plans to convert the vacant offices in Infinity Close, Portslade, on the corner of Norway Street.
The offices were built on the site of the old Infinity Foods warehouse before the business moved to bigger premises in Shoreham – and now the building could be turned into 12 flats.
One of the members of the firm behind the scheme is Ray Horney, 89, best known for running REO, the Irish company that bought Battersea Power Station for £400 million in 2006.
Brighton and Hove City Council previously granted permission, in 2013, for 31 homes and the office block on the wider site, on the Franklin Road Industrial Estate.
A previous application to convert the office block into eight flats was turned down in 2016 because the council did not want to lose another commercial premises.
Officials said that the office space had not been marketed properly and the proposal lacked much-needed affordable housing.
Rayford Tower instructed the Brighton planning consultancy Lewis and Co to help prepare the latest application which the council published this week.
The application said that it was hard to market office buildings in Portslade because it was a secondary location compared with Brighton, Shoreham and Worthing.
The application said: “The site is currently vacant and has been since Taylor Wimpey constructed the building in 2015.
“The original intention was for the building to be used as offices. However, there has never been any interest in the premises from prospective businesses.
“The (developer) now proposes a more appropriate use of the site which resonates with the predominantly residential character of the locality (and) provides 12 urgently needed residential units.
“As the building has been vacant for almost 10 years, the plot has been subject to break-ins and other anti-social behaviour.”
The application also said: “Given the significant time period which has passed since the refusal of the previous application and the additional supporting information provided, it is clear there has been no change to any of these previously raised market factors.
“If anything, these issues have only been further compounded through subsequent factors in the intervening period.
“As a result of this, it is clear the most viable use of the site would be for residential use as 12 apartments.
“Clearly, while the site forms office space within the Brighton and Hove area, as it has been vacant for almost 10 years, it has never made any contribution to business floorspace provision.
“Given the housing need context the proposed development therefore provides a clear opportunity for the sustainable re-use of an existing building.”
The application includes a viability assessment which says that the scheme would not make any money and would not therefore be viable if it included affordable homes.
To see or comment on the application, go to the council’s website and search for BH2025/01227.
So it seems like it has not been properly marketed in the intervening 10 years. What is desperately needed is social housing. I think that this should be a condition for granting any planning permission for change of use.
Blimey hasn’t been Occupied for 10 Years-I remember when they were quick enough to demolish that Infinity Foods for Housing, yet no one has any intrest in the Office Block.
With Housing Demand so needed in the City-why so long to decide now