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Plans scaled down and costs reduced for Bradford city centre bid

7:01pm Monday 27th July 2009 in


Revised plans to transform the site of Bradford’s Odeon cinema were submitted to planners yesterday.

Developer Langtree Artisan has reduced the scale of its New Victoria Place proposal by a third in response to concerns over the development’s size.

But the planning documents, which need to be verified by Bradford Council planners, are not likely to be available for public viewing until the end of this week. Last Friday the Telegraph & Argus visited a public exhibition of the plans.

It was revealed that the number of apartments has been cut from 172 to 36 and the original height of 13 storeys has been reduced to eight – sloping down to six.

The revisions have also seen the cost reduced from £55 million to £40 million.

Langtree Artisan also revealed tenants would need to be in place before construction begins, such as an operator for the planned 100-bed hotel.

The scheme includes office space, apartments, a hotel, bars, cafes and community leisure facilities.

Langtree Artisan and building owners Yorkshire Forward worked with English Heritage and Bradford Centre Regeneration on the revised plans and have taken on board comments made during consultation last year, and expect the development to bring more than 1,350 jobs to Bradford.

The former Odeon building, which has been empty since 2000, would need to be demolished to make way for the scheme.

English Heritage has now supported the revised plans and is satisfied the benefits outweigh the loss of the Odeon’s iconic towers.

Comments(9)

Jammy says...
7:40pm Mon 27 Jul 09

"Tenants need to be in place" To be honest do Artisan believe with the aforesaid limitation that tenants will be found Sooner or Later ,What we dont want ( and to be honest it sounds as if we will get) is another long term building site

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Rambo says...
8:28pm Mon 27 Jul 09

Cutting the number of apartments from 172 to 36 is a massive difference. I get the feeling a lot more of it is going to be scaled down to the absolute minimum.

Wow. It hasn't been a week and the plans have been scaled down.

Its probably going to get smaller and smaller just like the Superdome did.

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smile... says...
10:37pm Mon 27 Jul 09

the original application that was submitted last year included 172 apartments and this has now in the plan that was unveiled last week been scaled back to 36.

Considering the current market thats not a surprise and thankfully the amount of office space has not been reduced significantly if at all. Bradford needs high quality office space and the loss of the apartments doesn't bother me in them.

I wish that people would get their facts straight before making inane comments!

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Moon on a stick says...
12:19am Tue 28 Jul 09

Maybe the T and A should get a quote from one of the usually biased business leaders, maybe ask an ex-CEO of a demolishion company on whether the Odean should be flattened, because that wouldn't get an at all biased response now would it?

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rongtw says...
6:42am Tue 28 Jul 09

tenants have to be in place first ??? is this not the reason we have the westfield hole ? lack of tenants, so it looks like we going to have another hole awaiting tenants , unless they take the unemployed on rent rebate

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c/pot says...
8:49am Tue 28 Jul 09

Knock it down,make it into a car park so more people can come and watch the pantomime,ie the council.

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SLATE MINER says...
10:54am Tue 28 Jul 09

smile... wrote:
the original application that was submitted last year included 172 apartments and this has now in the plan that was unveiled last week been scaled back to 36. Considering the current market thats not a surprise and thankfully the amount of office space has not been reduced significantly if at all. Bradford needs high quality office space and the loss of the apartments doesn't bother me in them. I wish that people would get their facts straight before making inane comments!
Bradford needs high quality office space and the loss of the apartments doesn't bother me in them.
Does this mean you have bought one of the apartments? Lol

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SLATE MINER says...
10:56am Tue 28 Jul 09

c/pot wrote:
Knock it down,make it into a car park so more people can come and watch the pantomime,ie the council.
Better still open it up and put the staff from Yorkshire Forward and Bradford Council on stage. What an Oscar winning performance that would be.

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smile... says...
2:47pm Tue 28 Jul 09

@slate miner - nothing in my comments indicated taht i have bought any apartments - i havent and wouldnt!

my point was that in the current market the number of apartments originally proposed wouldnt sell anyway and that the high quality offices proposed is what Bradford really needs.

as long as the office aspect remains similar/the same then the development still stands a chance of getting built

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How the area could look once the Odeon is demolished and the new buildings completed How the area could look once the Odeon is demolished and the new buildings completed

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