UK: Cambridge City Council and its development partner Marick Real Estate Ltd have announced that work on an aparthotel in the city’s Park Street will begin in January 2021.
Work was due to start early next year but the council says it has listened to concerns raised by traders and members of the community. The deferred start will allow additional time for further technical investigations, surveys and design work to be undertaken, and to improve mitigation plans during the major rebuilding work.
Subject to planning consent, the proposed redevelopment of the Park Street car park will feature a 200+-key Wilde by Staycity aparthotel above a basement car park with 225 public spaces.
Cllr Herbert, leader of Cambridge City Council, said: “It is vital that we give the city early notice of the decision to reschedule the start of construction to January 2021, a year later than planned. While this has not been an easy decision to make, we know it’s the right call to minimise avoidable disruption to local people and businesses, and get the job right. Giving the project’s complexity, the extra year of preparation will allow more time to have everything in place to start construction at the beginning of 2021, and minimise build time and inconvenience to meet our tight deadlines. We recognise that there will be unavoidable interim impacts from the redevelopment, but investing in modern car and cycle parking facilities and the new 200-room aparthotel – and extras like extensive electric vehicle charging – will be a real boost to the northern half of our historic city centre.”
Marcus Boret, director of Marick Real Estate, said: “We look forward to working closely with CIP to regenerate this part of Park Street. The revised timescale will mitigate any conflicts in construction logistics with the Cambridge Union building currently under construction.”
A planning application for the redevelopment of Park Street car park was submitted in July. A decision on the planning application is expected in December.
