It could be years before city eyesore is redeveloped
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Grosvenor Hotel: Years before eyesore is finally torn down and redeveloped
Plans to redevelop the Island Site – one of Bristol’s biggest eyesores and located right outside one of the city’s biggest gateways – have been approved after a 14-year battle.
However, it could still take years to begin work to tear down the Grosvenor Hotel near Temple Meads station thanks to the recession and the number of stakeholders involved in the area.
A Bristol City Council planning committee last night backed revised plans to demolish and replace the derelict hotel with a new office block with a cafe and bars at ground level.
The Grade II-listed George and Railway Hotel, which closed in 1993, will be refurbished and used for offices. There will be basement car parks underneath both buildings, with a total of 48 parking spaces.
Temple Circus Developments (TCD) have owned the site, but not the Grosvenor Hotel, since the mid-1990s and had wanted to redevelop the whole site.
Since then, TCD has submitted three sets of plans in 2002, 2007 and in February last year – all of which were rejected. The 2009 plans had been rejected over the height of the proposed office block.
Last year, TCD spokesman Dan Bramwell said his company could not afford to “keep spending more money on plans that may or may not be accepted”.
After removing two storeys from the proposed block, the plans were approved by the central area planning committee.
However, speaking to the Evening Post today, Mr Bramwell said it could be years before work starts.
“It’s an awkward site to engineer and there is still some way to go. We hope to be on site over the next few years,” he said.
“We have planning conditions to go through and with the market conditions at the moment, it’s a difficult time to start on a site like this.”
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