Developers resubmit plans for 35 new homes in Essex shopping centre

Eastgate Shopping Centre in Basildon
-Credit: (Image: Galliard Homes)


New plans have been unveiled to build flats in empty office spaces at a south Essex shopping centre. Developers have gone back to the drawing board after previous plans were scrapped for the homes at the Eastgate Business Centre, part of the Eastgate Shopping Centre, Southernhay, Basildon. The latest plans are for 35 homes after the previous proposals for 86 homes “proved not to be cost-effective”.

The 35 flats will mostly have two bedrooms with a few three and four-bedroom properties also included in the plans. The business centre, made up of a number of offices, has been empty for a number of years and the planning statement states “Empty spaces within town centre environments tend to negatively impact those businesses and premises that remain, so improving occupancy levels should be seen as a positive to local businesses.”

It also states the development could house up to 104 residents which would bring “new customers to existing businesses, as well as potentially providing habitation for employees of said businesses.”

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The plans also say that the development would not include car parking due to its location. It comes after the Eastgate Centre was purchased by Galliard Homes and DVS Ground Rent, and this was followed by major plans to transform the centre with almost 3,000 being scrapped. The centre is also seeing change with the former Debenhams store being transformed into a health and diagnostic centre.

The planning statement for the Eastgate Business Centre plans states: “The development site has changed ownership since the previous applications, and it is the intention of the new owners to move forward immediately with the development once approval has been received. Alongside this application, a secondary application is being submitted to change the external cladding of the development which will complement the changes to the internal layout being proposed within this change of use scheme.”