Preston office-to-resi plans tabled
Retail Revive has lodged an application to convert and extend London House, a vacant office block east of the city centre, into 71 apartments.
Located off Primrose Hill in Preston, the 23,000 sq ft office building has been vacant “for some time”, according to a planning statement by Cassidy + Ashton.
The 1970s office was last occupied by the Olive School, a Muslim faith school. The institution moved to a purpose-built facility on Vicarage Lane in Fulwood in 2021.
Retail Revive, run by the Bhailok family, wants to extend the five-storey building upwards by one floor and add a new-build element of similar scale along the northern boundary of the site, creating an L-shaped building.
The development would deliver 29 one-bedroom apartments, 25 with two bedrooms, and 17 studios.
Under recently relaxed rules around office-to-residential conversions, the developer would not require planning permission for the internal work.
However, an application has been submitted to Preston City Council as the scheme includes changes to the external appearance of the building.
The building will be reclad, under Revive Retail’s plans, “creating a modern and attractive streetscape”, according to Cassidy + Ashton.
To learn more about the plans, search for reference number 06/2024/0513 on Preston City Council’s planning portal.
