Park Hotel Preston: the very latest on the abandoned hotel and plans to turn it into apartments

The 140-year-old building on East Cliff was a luxury hotel for over seventy decades (opening in 1883), before being used as Lancashire County Council offices from the 1950s onwards, but since the local authority left in 2011, it has been left unused and has grown increasingly derelict.

Earlier this year, the Post shared pictures of the abandoned Park Hotel which had been taken by an urban explorer called Chaotic Footsteps back in October 2022.

At the time, the building’s former owners, the Local Pensions Partnership were approached for comment who said: “The building has been sold by the Fund subject to planning approval. There are no further updates on this development until this process is complete.”

The new owners in question are the Heaton Group, who did not comment on the trespassing, but BNP Paribas Real Estate, who take care of the security, said: “This incident took place prior to a series of robust additional security measures being introduced to ensure the building's safeguarding, which includes CCTV cameras, steel shuttering, fencing, a dedicated alarm system, and a 24-hour dog handler to walk the site at night.”

Our readers were highly interested in the story so we thought we would look further into what is happening with the hotel because at the moment…it doesn’t look like much is!

What are the Heaton Group’s plans for Park Hotel?

On May 23 2023, the Heaton Group put in two applications (the full application and a separate Listed Building Consent application) to:

1) Turn the hotel (site A) into a 65-room apart hotel with a gym, co-working space and a ground-floor cafe and restaurant

2) Turn a detached Georgian building - which was formerly a private house - 8 East Cliff (site B) into six apartments;

3) To build two new apartment blocks (called Block C and Block D) around the hotel which would house 321 new apartments combined.

The plans also included improved access to Miller Park from the hotel, putting in new car parking, new landscaping of the whole site and new drainage and infrastructure works

Why have these applications not been decided on yet?

Usually Preston City Council has 13 weeks from the submission of an application to make a decision but this date passed long ago.

When we asked Preston City Council why, they responded: “When large planning applications cannot be determined in that timescale, because more information is required for example, extensions are allowed, if agreed by Planners and the Applicant.”

The council added: “As a result of our initial consultation process, we asked the applicant to submit amended plans in response to feedback. You can see these new designs in the third document down “Park Hotel – Design Addendum” in the additional documentation on our planning portal. The application number is 06/2023/0510”

What changes have been made?

Six amended plans were submitted on November 27 this year, plus an explaining document, following comments made by Historic England, and the changes are summarised below.

Site Sections: Block C has been shortened by 3 metres from 49.6m to 46.6m due to the removal of the top floor (reduced apartments by 43). Block D meanwhile retains the same roof height but originally the top floor below it was narrower than the floors below it, meaning the widest part of the building was only 49.6m high. This reduced top floor has now been replaced by a typical floor allowing a more tripartite facade articulation and meaning the widest part of the building is now 52.6m high (increased apartments by 10).

Site Plan: Whilst the old site plan merely outlined the size and location of the various apartments in blocks B,C,D or hotel rooms in block A, the new site plan now goes into further detail. Now you can see the various size and shape of the rooms within each apartment/hotel room and the proposed location of furniture. The position of block C has also been altered to sit in line with the frontage of the Park Hotel.

The street scene: Although not too clear on the submitted image, the splayed facade details on blocks C and D have been replaced for more traditional columns and horizontal banding to respond to concerns regarding facade dominance against the Park Hotel. The street scene change also reflects the new building heights as mentioned above.

Floor plans for 8 East Cliffe: the only change is on the first floor, in which one bathroom and one storage room are moved around, allowing for a larger bedroom but a smaller lounge area.

Elevations 1 for 8 East Cliffe: The only change is to the southwest windows on the ground floor. In the original proposals these windows were to be like for like timber windows but in the amended proposals, the plan is now to retain/repair existing windows subject to window survey.

Elevations 2 for 8 East Cliffe: The same change as above is applied to the south east and north east facing windows on the first floor.

To further read about the new proposals, visit this.

When is a decision likely to be made?

As an extension of time was agreed with the applicant, the changes submitted in November do not mean the 13-week window has started again.

The council spokesperson said: “The Council have re-consulted on the amended plans and the application will be taken to Planning Committee for a decision in 2024. They do not require any more information from the applicant at this stage.”

Have the developers said anything?

The Heaton Group were approached for comment but they have not responded.