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£100m plan to transform seafront
BOLD plans to demolish 10 seafront hotels and replace them with massive new holiday and residential accommodation were today unveiled.
Six new buildings – up to 12 storeys high – are proposed for Bourne Crescent on Blackpool's New South Promenade, in a 100m "masterplan" to revitalise the area between Harrowside and Burlington Road.
See the plans here
It is a joint bid from hoteliers in response to falling visitor numbers.
They say the only way forward is to replace ageing holiday accommodation with up-to-date rooms together with 300 luxury apartments all of which will boast a sea view.
An outline planning application has been submitted to Blackpool Council in the name of all the hotels who are partners in the ambitious project.
Blackpool-born architect Peter Marshall, who has worked on projects in Beijing, Shanghai and Hong Kong, has designed the scheme.
Mr Marshall, whose family also owns the Headlands Hotel which is part of the plan, said: "Re-establishing living on the Promenade in a balanced community will reconnect Blackpool with a key part of its heritage where the town was in the past renowned as a healthy environment to live in.
"We want to bring world class architecture to the Promenade."
The hotels involved in the scheme are the Henderson, the Kenilworth, the Kimberley, the Waldorf, the Headlands, the Warwick, the Colwyn, the Skye, the Trafford and the Sandpiper Apartments.
The ten hotels
- The Kimberley (54), owned by Max and Valerie Smith
- The Warwick (50), owned by Grand Tours UK
- The Headlands (42), owned and operated by Mike and Susan Simkin, and Charles and Sheila Ruppert
- The Waldorf (40), owned by Steve Satchwell and Steve Pyatt
- The Colwyn (26)
- The Skye (22)
- The Henderson (19), owned by Hugh and Veronica Connolly
- The Trafford (19)
- The Kenilworth (14), owned by Maurice and Susan Azzopardi
- The Sandpiper Apartments (10), owned by Coastway Developments (Isle of Man) Ltd
Number of bedrooms/apartments in brackets
The Palm Beach and the Bourne Hotel have opted out of the scheme and will remain unaffected.
Millionaire businessman Max Smith, who has owned the 54-bedroomed Kimberley for 10 years, said he had placed the property in the hands of three different franchise operators in that time, but each had struggled to make the business succeed.
He said: "Once this part of the Promenade came to be looked on as outside the core tourist area, a spiral of decline began and will probably accelerate if no action is taken.
Imaginative
"Our group of hoteliers sees the redevelopment project as a courageous and forward-looking concept that could well kick-start the long overdue regeneration of the resort's promenade.
"Our civic leaders are doing all they can to find a bold and imaginative plan B now that the supercasino dream is dead in the water. We feel our spectacular redevelopment will support the council in its efforts to regenerate the town."
As well as the holiday accommodation and housing the plans include two restaurants, car parking and landscaping.
Holiday accommodation would be provided on the first three floors of each block with residential units above, to create a US-style condo-hotel.
Californian-born agent Fernando Fernandez, who is advising the hoteliers, said: "Anywhere in the world, beachfront property is the best."
Mr Smith said he hoped the scheme would attract "high-end" spenders.
He said: "We've heard of celebrities like Jonathan Ross and Robbie Williams saying they would like to live in Blackpool.
But where would they go at the moment? This will be real luxury living with a sea view as good as anywhere in the world."
The hoteliers have already held extensive talks with planners and feasibility reports including a study to prove that properties behind the development are not over-shadowed, have been prepared.
The application is likely to go before the council's development control committee in June. Blackpool Council's head of development control Ian Ward said: "It is a major proposal for Blackpool and we will be consulting widely on it."
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Thursday 24 May 2012
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