Brighton’s conference centre set for revamp

Plans are being worked up to replace Brighton’s ageing conference centre, according to Brighton and Hove City Council. Max Woodford, Assistant Director of City Development & Regeneration at the local authority told our Brighton event that the council wants to build a £500m new facility.

The derelict former swimming pool Black Rock site, located next to Brighton’s marina, has been identified as the location for the replacement centre. This will free up the existing conference centre to enable an extension of Aberdeen Standard Life’s Churchill Square shopping centre, including new housing and offices, down to the sea front. Woodford said: ”The decision to build in the seventies set us apart from the likes of Hastings. The building is getting toward the end of its life and not exactly what the conference market wants any more. This will completely reshape the sea front.”
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Woodford also said that the council aimed to make progress on the redevelopment of its seafront King Alfred’s leisure centre following the recent award of £15m for the project from the Government’s Housing Infrastructure Fund. The project would involve the delivery of a new 12,000 sq m sports centre, commercial space, shops and 565 homes of which a fifth would be affordable. He said: ”With that injection of money, we are able to move forward quicker and hope to get a development agreement signed by the end of this year.”

Sites have also been identified for 500 additional council homes – if the Government sanctions an increase in the borrowing cap on its housing revenue account. They’re exploring the use of modular construction which Woodford said has the potential to delivery homes ‘really cheaply’ if the right site can be identified.

But Brighton’s housing growth is constrained by its physical location, between the coast and the protected South Downs, he said: ”We have to make each site work as hard as possible. We have to be innovative about building at scale and density. Because of the lack of land, we are nowhere near meeting our housing need.”

Ross Gilbert, Managing Director of QED, outlined the developer’s plans to build a new sea swimming centre in a bid to revitalise a derelict stretch of the Brighton sea front. He said the new Sea Lanes scheme would be located on a playground, which has been derelict since 1987, midway between the Palace Pier and Brighton marina. Sea Lane, the application for which he hoped would be determined by November, could help to integrate the currently disjointed two to three mile stretch of beachfront.

Ahead of securing permission, QED has introduced a number of pop up uses on the sites, including a ‘Beach Box’ mobile sauna and swim gym, with Gilbert saying: ”We’ve been able to transform a site that had been vacant and brought the community together to enjoy Brighton seafront.”

He also criticised delays in the planning system, pointing to how QED is only now completing its New England Quarter development on an old goods yard to the north of Brighton rail station, which ceased operating more than 30 years ago: ”The development process is too close to keep up with the pace of change.”

Barry Jessup, Director at developer First Base, told the event that the developer is starting on site spring next year on its plans to redevelop the site of the American Express’ former European headquarters building in Brighton into a mixed-use scheme. The Edward Street Quarter will contain 160,000 sq ft of commercial space accommodating up to 2,000 job together with 168 new flats, 20% of which will be affordable.

He said that planning permission for the scheme had been secured in July, less than a year after its acquisition last September. Jessup expressed optimism that the scheme, which should be ready for occupation by spring 2021, would be popular with potential office tenants. He said: ”Brighton lost a lot of offices to permitted development rights and lots of local businesses are struggling to find space.”

The scheme would also boost the east end of Brighton, he said: ”This part of Brighton doesn’t have a solid identity. We’re trying to pull the centre of gravity of Brighton out to the east.”

Martin Perry, Chief Executive of Brighton and Hove Albion FC, said the football club’s plans to develop 142-acre site next to its training ground had received a boost after the Government awarded funding to upgrade a tidal flooding wall along the River Adur. Ikea’s decision to build a 31,099 sq m store would help finance infrastructure needed to unlock the site, including a new road junction, he said: ”Ikea had been looking for a location in the south of England half way between Croydon and Southampton so this is ideally located for them. This delivers the land value that makes this project work.”
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