Preston holiday apartments planned above kebab house and hi-fi store
More than a dozen holiday rental apartments could be on the way to Preston city centre as part of a plan to bring vacant office space back into use.
The empty accommodation spans the top three storeys of a largely four-floor building on the corner of Lancaster Road and Church Street.
The ground floor of the premises is made up of trading businesses - including the Yum Yum pizza and kebab house, Richer Sounds home entertainment store and Golden Needle tailors - all of which would be unaffected by the proposed changes above.
An unnamed applicant has lodged a proposal with Preston City Council to convert the upper floors into 18 “serviced holiday accommodation units”.
The planned facilities would come in various sizes to accommodate “individual visitors, couples, and families or small groups”.
“The units will be professionally managed by the applicant and marketed via established online booking platforms, operating in a manner comparable to a small hotel or aparthotel,” planning documents submitted to the town hall state.
The corner section of the building and half of that which fronts Lancaster Road is Grade II listed, dating from the mid-19th century.
The applicant claims that the conversion would not cause any “harm to the significance” of the premises - but says that the continued vacancy of the upper floors poses a risk to the long-term maintenance of the site.
The levels above the retail units have undergone previous incremental changes. As part of the revamp, all existing timber sash windows would be retained - and repaired and repainted where necessary.
A noise assessment carried out as part of the planning application concludes that “appropriate mitigation measures” would ensure noise levels for future occupants of the apartments would be within acceptable levels.