Building planned for Bradford Odeon site reduced (From Bradford Telegraph and Argus)

Building planned for Bradford Odeon site reduced

7:02pm Friday 24th July 2009 in

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Developers presented a “significantly scaled down” scheme to people who visited a public exhibition of plans for Bradford city centre’s Odeon cinema site.

Langtree Artisan, which is spearheading the scheme, has reduced the scale of its New Victoria Place proposal by more than a third in response to public concerns that the development was too big.

During the exhibition at the Great Victoria Hotel today, the developer revealed that the number of apartments within the proposal had been cut from 172 to just 36.

This will allow the development’s residential and hotel building to be reduced from its original height of 13-storeys to eight, sloping down to six storeys.

The design of the office building, which will front on to the new mirror pool City Park, has been remodelled into a woven facade, with horizontal and vertical weaver layers.

Simon Peters, development director at Langtree, said the revisions to the scheme meant the cost had been reduced from £55 million to £40 million.

And he revealed that the development would not be built on a speculative basis, saying tenants would need to be in place before construction began.

He said: “Not withstanding the current property market and economy, there are still a number of occupiers interested in the development, including hotel operators, and once we have planning permission we will be able to move forward the discussions. In the current climate, we will need to have occupiers in order to deliver the scheme.

“The revised scheme has been significantly scaled down and the design has been greatly enhanced. There’s a great deal of effort gone into enhancing the design and it’s a development that reflects the existing architecture of the city”

Mike Harris, director of Carey Jones architects, said: “We have responded to comments received from members of the public and key stakeholders, so we have revised the scheme but kept the principles of the original scheme in terms of usage with offices, a hotel and residential.

“Originally the office building nearest the Alhambra had its thicker, wider end towards the Alhambra. We have reversed the building and have actually stepped the building down so it’s lower towards the Alhambra, creating roof terraces for the office users to work with.”

Mark Nicholson, a member of Bradford Odeon Rescue Group said: “My biggest problem with this revised scheme is that it is supposed to have been a result of feedback to the consultation last year.

“On the website, there was about a thousands objections saying they wanted the Odeon to be kept, so how on earth is this responding to that feedback?”

The exhibition was due to continue tomorrow between 11am and 4pm.