Consultants fail to come up with Post Office plan

[TrueBlueTerrier]

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City leaders today admitted they were no closer to finding a solution for the future of Preston’s former Post Office building - despite spending £29,000 employing consultants.

It was hoped the Grade Two listed Birley Street building could be marketed within 12 months with a view to giving it a new lease of life.

And a team of consultants from King Sturge, which has an office in Manchester, was asked to look at a “viable, economically sustainable use for the building”.

But it has now emerged the building needs more than £1m spent on it to bring it up to scratch.

Eliot Ward, chief executive of Preston Vision, said: “In essence, the findings are that they don’t see there are viable uses in the present market to take the building forward without significant public subsidy.

“And clearly, the origins of any public subsidy are under question at the moment.

“We were very keen to see if there was anything that was being missed in terms of possible uses for the space.

“But it does confirm what we suspected that there are no occupiers out there that we were missing.”

He said the building would need improvement work totalling “seven figures plus”.

However, he said there were “one or two” lines they could follow-up in terms of targeted marketing according to the experts’ draft report

He said: “We have to consider the building not in isolation but in the context of other city centre development proposals, not least Tithebarn which I’m sure will change mindsets and uplift values.”

John Lafferty, a planning and development consultant at King Sturge, said: “We look at a whole range of opportunities for buildings’ end uses but unfortunately it’s not possible to get a viable use in there.

“With regards to the building itself, conversions are always more expensive.

“And regarding end users, it’s difficult to get an end user to commit to a building.

“The existing office stock in Preston is second-hand stock so there’s no grade A office market there.”

The consultants were funded by the North West Development Agency and Lancashire County Developments Limited (LCDL).

The landmark, owned by Preston Council, was once considered for the new home for the city’s central library to free up more exhibition space in the Harris Museum.

And a bid for Government funding for a £25m, six-storey knowledge centre housed in the Post Office and Fish Market buildings failed.

While an idea to turn it into a “Dragons Den” to encourage the cream of the brightest graduates from UCLan to remain in Preston and develop their careers has also stalled.

Instead, the building has remained largely empty since the Post Office moved to Theatre Street, off Fishergate, in 2002.

The plans are being looked at by a partnership including Preston Council, Preston Vision, the NorthWest Development Agency, the University of Central Lancashire and LCDL.

[Lounge Lizard]

And a team of consultants from King Sturge, which has an office in Manchester, was asked to look at a “viable, economically sustainable use for the building”.
Preston's second Wetherspoons perhaps.

[DirtyHarry]

CONsultants, is that the name for a herd of wankeers?