Developer Zinc Real Estate is seeking feedback on its proposals to create “a dynamic silhouette for the city skyline” by demolishing Clarendon House in Western Way and replacing it with a 350-bed student accommodation block up to sixteen storeys tall.
Clarendon House is a five-storey 1960s office block that stands on the Paris Street roundabout at the corner of Western Way and Heavitree Road.
It is beside the Leonardo Hotel (formerly Jury’s Inn) and faces St Sidwell’s Point leisure centre across the roundabout. It is currently part-occupied by Exeter Jobcentre Plus.
Clarendon House student accommodation proposals illustrative view (front). Source: Zinc Real Estate.
Zinc Real Estate, which is based in London and The Netherlands, says it wants to “create a landmark building, as well as deliver significant improvements to connectivity and public realm” in the area.
Its proposed design includes a “garden lane” walkway between the block and the Leonardo Hotel, providing access to the Triangle car park behind, and new pedestrian crossings across Western Way and Cheeke Street, where high levels of traffic make current pedestrian use unsafe.
Russell Street, beside the Grade II-listed building occupied by Exeter Sewing Machine Company, would also be widened where it joins Heavitree Road.
The proposed development includes an internal garden courtyard and a “community start-up space” which would be reached through a shop front on Heavitree Road.
The developer is seeking “community and partners to explore possible uses” for this space, which it describes as “large and lofty”, such as “co-working and spaces for small business start-ups to grow”.
Clarendon House student accommodation proposals illustrative view (rear). Source: Zinc Real Estate.
Clarendon House is located in the East Gate development zone allocated in the new Exeter Local Plan.
The developer says its proposals would be in “synergy with St Sidwell’s Point leisure centre” and that the leisure centre and the new bus station show that the area has “further potential for redevelopment”.
It claims an “aspiration” to construct a “net zero carbon building”, citing Liveable Exeter principles.
It also says the city centre location makes Clarendon House an ideal site for Purpose Built Student Accommodation, and that proximity to the roundabout renders it unsuitable for other types of residential accommodation.
The proposed block would be a short distance from several existing city centre student accommodation blocks in Paris Street, Cheeke Street and Bampfylde Street.
Comments on the proposals can be submitted using an online feedback form until Sunday 31 December.
They will be used, along with those collected at a public exhibition held on Thursday 7 December, to develop more detailed proposals for presentation at a second public exhibition early next year.
The developer intends to submit a planning application to Exeter City Council in late spring. A statutory public consultation on the plans will then follow.
