Plans to merge two commercial units on George Street and build nine new flats above them have been submitted.
The adjacent shops on 1 and 2 George Street, now occupied by Santander bank and Logos Written Word Family Outreach Church on a temporary let, would be redeveloped into a single unit.
An additional three to four storeys would be constructed to create nine residential flats above them.
The flats would be a mix of one, two and three bedroom flats, with no ‘affordable housing’ provided.
The planning statement says: “Without doubt, the proposal would raise the standard of design at site and immediate locality and remove the unsightly flat roof derelict retail unit.
“The proposal represents a valuable contribution to the defined Hove Town Centre area.
“Further, the proposed accommodation above would contribute to both the viability and vitality of the centre, resulting in increased local spend and resident’s utilisation of local businesses.”
It is unclear whether the bank or church would have to move premises if the proposed redevelopment goes ahead, although Santander says it has no plans to close its Hove branch.
The upper storey would be set back from the front of the building to be concealed from the high street view.
Two 1-bed studios, six 2-bed flats, and one 3-bed flat are proposed, with five of the homes to include a balcony space.
Morgans Property Consultants and CMK Planning confirm in planning documents that £361,700 will be contributed to the council in lieu of on-site provision of affordable housing.
The redevelopment would result in a single ground floor commercial unit, with back of house storage, kitchen, toilets and commercial refuse storage area.
A Santander spokesperson said: “We do not currently have any plans to close our Hove branch and are committed to providing the customers and community of Hove with our full range of branch banking services.”
Logos Written Word Family Outreach Church declined to comment.
You can find the application on the council’s planning portal by searching for the reference: BH2022/03829.
With the council on the back foot in regards to meeting its budget this year, seems a good time for development bids.
What is a £362k contribution towards affordable housing supposed to buy, the proposed housing in Moulsecoomb somehow comes out at over £410k per unit? The design isn’t exactly inspiring either, another white box and another storey added to the existing building.
George Street is full of small shops with small independent traders. This does not at all go with the street having 1 massive unit that only a multinational business could afford, it cannot be a bar or restaurant due to flats above so what will go there, probably Costa or starbucks….
Equally it’s pretty ugly by anyone’s standard. This is not at all in keeping with the area.
Yet again a bank thinking its better than anything else just keep closing branches
What a load of crap why not just come out with it and say we want to build flats that they can make a fortune from and stuff what it does to the local area because they don’t care
That whole area is a cluttered mess, as is western road, anything that can be done to tidy it up is great. My concern here though is parking/access with any new housing in the centre of towns this will add pressure to an already stressed infrastructure.