A city centre car park on the banks of the Floating Harbour looks set to be developed with 70 flats and new shops built there.
The council-owned car park at The Grove stretches from the Thekla music venue ship, past the Mud Dock building to Prince Street bridge, and has been handed over from the council to its house-building arm Goram Homes.
Goram Homes’ new business plan for 2023 has listed The Grove car park among the new sites in its ‘pipeline’, which also includes sites at Hengrove Park in South Bristol and around Lockleaze. The other major addition to Goram Homes’ list of places it intends to build in the future is the Cumberland Basin, which has been renamed ‘Western Harbour’ by the city council as part of its long-standing plans for major developments around the basin, Hotwells and Ashton Meadows.
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A spokesperson for Goram Homes said the car park could be ideal for new homes and since the development company published its business plan in 2022, it had been working with the council to find new sites.
“This council-owned site, in a sustainable location, has the potential for around 70 new homes, alongside commercial space at the ground floor level,” a Goram Homes spokesperson said. “At least 40 per cent of the new homes here would be a mixture of social rent and shared ownership. The site has the potential to maintain some public car parking,” they added.
It's not the first council car park to be allocated for housing. Just the other side of Redcliffe Bridge, the Portwall Lane car park, opposite St Mary Redcliffe Church, has plans to have new homes built on top, which Bristol Live revealed last month.
Goram Homes are also behind the plan to build flats on Baltic Wharf, which is currently Bristol's Caravan Club site, and a planning application for those new flats is expected to be decided on soon - albeit with fears over flooding complicating the councillors' decision.
The 2023 business plan from Goram Homes expands on the aspirations of 2022, when the bulk of its focus is on two sites on the outskirts of the city: the massive Hengrove Park development, which Goram Homes was given after a delayed and then aborted attempt by the council to find a private developer to partner up on the former Whitchurch Airfield site; some 200 new homes on the former site of New Fosseway School in Hengrove and some of the various sites around the 1950s Lockleaze estate.
“In these challenging economic times, we are committed to building homes in the numbers Bristol really needs,” said a Goram Homes spokesperson. “Houses are going up at One Lockleaze, and our on-site skills academy will launch in March – to provide local people with work experience and training to kickstart their construction careers. Work has also begun on the first phase of council homes at Hengrove Park,” she added.
Read next:
- Council trial new 'local homes for local people' policy
- South Bristol's GPs and schools won't cope with 12,000 new homes claims MP
- Council-owned developer accused of 'underhand tactics' over 140- home scheme
- Work finally gets underway at Hengrove Park's massive housing development
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