15-storey Guild Tower - close to Preston bust station and the Guild Hall - will house 115 flats including four luxury 'penthouse apartments'
Preston 's tallest building will be transformed into luxury apartments - complete with an outdoor gym and a 'living wall' of plants. The landmark 15-storey Guild Tower, which stands on Church Row – just yards from the city’s bus station and behind the Guild Hall – was most recently occupied by the Department for Work and Pensions, but has been largely empty for more than a year.
The apartments will run from the second floor all the way to the top of the structure, where panoramic views of Preston will be on offer to purchasers of the four, three-bedroomed ‘penthouse’ properties that will be created. The outside of the brutalist building – which dates back to 1979 – is also in line for a facelift, with its brown concrete panels to take on “a combination of grey and white tones”, according to planning documents.
Committee chair Javed Iqbal said he did not believe the Guild Tower had ever been fully occupied “in all its life”, while fellow member Harry Landless seemed to sum up the overriding sentiment of his colleagues when he described the development as “a great use of a redundant building”. However, he struck a “slightly cynical” note of caution when he queried the appetite for yet more city centre apartments to add to all the similar schemes which have been approved for Preston in recent years.
The Guild Tower development is also the latest in a long line of city centre residential schemes which will not provide any properties that fall into the ‘affordable homes’ category. As in those other cases, the applicant successfully argued that it would render their proposal financially unviable if the firm had to meet the 30 percent quota for affordable homes that is normally demanded under Preston planning policy.
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