£2.5m Preston loft apartment plan gets green light

A plan to develop stylish loft living in the heart of Preston has been approved by planners.

The apartments have been designed by The Chase, which has created spacious duplex apartments and studios aimed at owner occupiers who want to enjoy the growing city living culture in the North West’s third city.

The ambitious city centre apartment plan is being backed by the government’s Growing Places Fund, led in Preston by the Lancashire Enterprise Partnership and a part of the City Deal investment.

Etc Urban plans to retain as many of the original warehouse features as possible - designing them into each of the apartments, which will go on sale later in 2017.

Neil Thornton, director of Etc Urban Developments, said: “With the backing of the Growing Places Fund and full support from Preston Council’s planning team, we can make a start on this exciting project restoring an historic and important commercial building in Preston from the Victorian era back to full use in the 21st century.

“A city living culture brings people back into the centre to live, work and play has helped to revitalise the day and night-time economies of these cities.

“We want to be on site as soon as possible and we look forward to working with all our partners to make this first high quality project a big success.”

Most of the apartments will have west-facing roof terraces. Behind the warehouse are the offices of the newly restored Winckley Square, which has been transformed with a £1.2m Heritage Lottery Fund facelift.

The basement will provide secure car-parking for the majority of residents allocated on a ‘first-come-first-sold’ basis to the apartment buyers.

“We are fortunate the building’s first use as a carriage manufactory was later taken over by the United Yeast Company and used for storage, which helped preserve these features for decades.”

The company’s architects, designers and sales and marketing experts have worked on regeneration projects across the UK, including the Northern Quarter and Ancoats in Manchester, Liverpool waterfront, Southbank in London and residential-led regeneration schemes in Leeds, Sheffield, Newcastle and Cardiff. It has also been involved in projects in London, New York, Tokyo and Berlin.