Developer Zinc Real Estate has submitted plans to Exeter City Council to convert Clarendon House to 32 residential flats after holding two informal consultations on its plans to demolish the building and construct a 310-bed student accommodation block in its place.
Its application for change of use proposes the retention of the external structure of the partly-vacant five-storey 1960’s office block on the corner of Western Way and Heavitree Road and the conversion of the first to fourth floors of the building to six studios, fifteen 1-bed flats and eleven 2-bed flats.
All 32 units would meet or exceed national minimum space standards. Studios range from 40-44 square metres, 1-bed flats from 50-72 square metres and two-bed flats from 72-95 square metres.
The ground floor of the building would provide 40 car parking spaces, cycle parking and a “communal residential amenity”.
As the change of use is proposed under Class MA of the General Permitted Development Order, following changes made in March last year, the city council is expected to approve it in due course.
Clarendon House. Photo: David Smith under Creative Commons licence.
Zinc Real Estate, which is based in London and The Netherlands, nevertheless also intends to seek planning permission to demolish the existing building and replace it with a much taller Purpose-Built Student Accommodation (PBSA) complex.
An informal consultation, which closed last week, invited comments on its revised proposals for a 310-bed seven to ten storey three-block complex on the site.
The revisions followed an informal public consultation on a 350-bed scheme of up to sixteen storeys that took place in December 2023.
Revisions included the reduction of the tallest block, beside the Leonardo Hotel, by six storeys and the addition of a single storey to each of the other two blocks.
Consultation materials for each scheme iteration said the developer was exploring possible uses for a ground floor space that would be accessible via a shop front in Heavitree Road.
The PBSA scheme also includes new Western Way and Cheeke Street pedestrian crossings and a new pedestrian access to the city council’s Triangle car park behind the site.
Comments on the Clarendon House change of use application can be submitted via the city council website until Sunday 9 February.
