Planning permission has been granted for a commercial conversion project in the centre of Bishop Auckland that will deliver ten luxury residential apartments at the intersection of Newgate Street and Victoria Avenue.
The project, which has been highly commended by the Durham County Council Planning Committee, is positioned in the town centre on the intersection of Newgate Street and Victoria Avenue.
The scheme will also see the closure of the current Post Office on Victoria Avenue, which is expected to move into the former Burtons store on the corner of the same street as part of a joint tenancy with another business.
This would address the long-term vacancy in the store and allow both the corner unit and the Post Office to be renovated in line with the Future High Street programme.
The application has given permission for partial change of use from retail to residential short-term lets on upper levels and ground Eastern retail unit, including demolition of rear stairwell and ground floor lean-to storage room and construction of new 3 storey rear extension to provide additional residential external terrace amenity.
“The current retail space will be retained at ground floor in the corner unit. The existing Post Office tenancy located off the high street on Victoria Avenue will be converted to residential.
Developer, BEK Developments said: “The Post Office operator has expressed an interest in ending the lease early and we are now in talks with the owner with regards to the future of the shop.
“The upper levels are to be converted from retail storage space to residential serviced apartments to create a total of ten short-term let apartments. Where possible, external amenity space has been created to ensure high quality development.”
Graham Thomas, Commercial Manager at Properties Unique, said: “We are really excited about this project and can’t wait to get cracking.
We would also like to say a big thank you to Cellar Door Architecture [who prepared the planning application] for their work on this scheme”.
The full planning application can be found on the planning section on the Durham County Council website
Bishop Auckland's local community newspaper.
