Plans have been revealed to create 19 new apart-hotel self-contained apartments in Southport town centre, to take advantage of growing numbers of visitors coming into Southport.
The development by Manchester Real Estate Ltd would be situated at 10-16 Coronation Walk, part of Crown Buildings.
The top three floors would be converted into 19 ApartHotel self-contained apartments while the ground floor would be retained for retail use.
The designs have been drawn up by the Huntar Haus design studio.
In the application, Principal Jonathan Hunter said: “The longer term trends indicate that the number of visitors is increasing, and that those visitors are spending more compared to previous years.
“Most visitors are day-trippers, only 8% stay overnight, less than half of which stay in hotels or B&B accommodation. The visitors who stay overnight contribute more to the local economy than day visitors.”
The upper floors, previously used as office space, “have remained vacant for a considerable period”.
The new scheme would create six full-time jobs.
A planning application has been submitted to Sefton Council.
In the application, Principal Jonathan Hunter said: “The application site forms part of the Crown House Buildings located along one of the principal commercial side streets; Coronation Walk, set within one of Southport’s established Conservation Areas: Promenade Conservation Area.
“The Conservation Area contains a wide variety of buildings dating from the early 19th century to the late 20th century and consists of a mixture of shops, leisure facilities, hotels, guest-houses and private dwellings. Coronation Walk is one of the primary arteries linking the Promenade and Kings Gardens to Lord Street.
“The existing ground floor use is to be retained, maintaining the commercial shop frontage.
“The upper floors, historically used as office space, have remained vacant for a considerable period, leading the applicant to explore other commercial enterprises that bring the building back into viable use.
“There is a small private car park to the rear of the site, which is overlooked by the application property.
“The application seeks permission to use the upper floors as an ‘apart-hotel’ where the individual flats would be used for hotel accommodation. The flats would be used on a temporary basis and as an alternative form of accommodation for people visiting Southport.
“Southport town centre site is recognised as a priority regeneration area for Sefton under policies ED6 (Regeneration Areas) and ED7 (Southport Central Area).
“The proposed development would see the regeneration of vacant units located within Southport town centre, with compatible uses. The proposal would therefore be acceptable in principle in this instance.
“It is proposed that the external facades are to remain as existing with no alterations required to enable the proposed change of use. As such, the proposal would bring a vacant building back into use within the Conservation Area, making a positive contribution to the conservation area and character of the area as a whole.”
The new development is not predicted to have any detrimental impact on the surrounding area.
Jonathan Hunter said: “The proposed development would see the refurbishment of the existing building. The proposed apart-hotel use would not be too dissimilar to existing uses in the immediate area which promote various business and leisure uses, including hotel accommodation.
“Whilst the ‘apart-hotel’ would be 24-hour operation it is considered that such use would be similar to the various bed and breakfast and other hotel uses that are located next to residential accommodation in the locality.
“The development would not cause significant harm to the living conditions of neighbouring residents. Given the transient and temporary nature of such a use, the reduced level of amenity for future occupants is considered acceptable in this instance.”
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