Enhanced Skyline in the Pipeline for Plymouth City Centre
The Pickstock Group propose to enhance the skyline of Plymouth and meet a much needed demand for student accommodation in the city by building two blocks of student accommodation. The first, a 13 storey building and the second, 10 storeys high.
A well-attended public consultation was held in the city in May to present the proposals. Designs have now been finalised and a full planning application has been submitted to Plymouth City Council.
Kate Pickstock, Development Surveyor for The Pickstock Group commented “This is an exciting development that fits in nicely with Plymouth’s tall building strategy.” Kate added “The scheme will reside alongside recent and future developments in this area of the city and provide a great location for students to live.”
It is proposed that the new student accommodation will provide 349 student rooms with retail units at street level. Pickstock Construction will act as the main contractor for the scheme, and student rooms will be built off-site by Elements Europe, the Pickstock Group’s off-site manufacturing company, who have years of experience in the student accommodation sector.
This will be the highest building that Elements Europe has installed its fully volumetric Room Pod system into. Rooms will be built off-site at the Elements Europe factory, delivered to site and craned into position.
With a construction programme of just one year, the use of off-site building solutions ensures a quick and easy installation, significantly reducing the build programme.
Until recently demolished, the development site contained a redundant and unattractive garage, and has been left untouched ever since.
The mixed use development will contribute to the rejuvenation of the south west quarter with this new and exciting accommodation. It will also revitalise Notte Street with desirable retail facilities benefiting students, local residents and office workers.
It is noted that Plymouth lacks sufficient purpose built student accommodation in comparison to other major university cities. Plymouth is home to approximately 26,000 students, however there are less than 4,000 beds provided by purpose built student schemes in the city. The proposals therefore make effort to bridge this deficit of accommodation.
The Pickstock Group will now await confirmation of planning permission from Plymouth City Council and are hoping to start on-site in September, with an expedited program in place to open for the September 2015 intake of students.
