Plymouth Office Refurbishment set for Civic Building

An exciting office refurbishment project awaits the deteriorated office space of Plymouth’s Civic Centre. The 15 storey building and car park is to be sold by commercial property firm Knight Frank. The City Centre campus was originally earmarked for demolition in 2007, this changed when the Department of Culture, Media and Sport’s awarded the Plymouth office building a Grade II listing.

The building now provides an exciting location for future development/office refurbishment in Plymouth and paving the way for the council to achieve significant savings.

Now subject to a feasibility study, part funded by English Heritage, the building and its office space has been assessed in order to identify ways of repairing it and bringing it back in to use as a mixed-use site.

Speaking to Business Insider South West, Plymouth Council cabinet member Ian Bowyer explained:

“We’ve been working towards finding a solution and need to know once and for all, if this building can be sold. This is the next stage and we are genuinely keen to see if there is interest in the building before we can go any further.

“The costs of maintaining a building that is no longer fit for purpose are beginning to escalate and in the current financial environment, we would rather see this money spent on front line services.”

With maintenance costs for the building having reportedly risen to £350,000 during 2010, and safety nets having been installed to protect the buildings users from the risk of falling masonry, finding a buyer for this key landmark of Plymouth’s post-war City Centre will be welcomed sooner rather than later by the “Pilgrim” council.

Despite dating back to 1947 and being one of the first buildings constructed as part of Plymouth’s post-war reconstruction – having been extensively bombed throughout WW2, the sale of the Civic Centre building will form part of a wider project by the Council designed to up-date, consolidate and improve the use of its office space throughout the city – following in the footsteps of both government and private firms who have embarked on quest to merge their office space, utilising the outcome of space planning.