The husband and wife team behind a popular boutique hotel in Leicester are planning their next property venture.
Naresh and Sharon Parmar, who have a reputation for redeveloping large, rundown, former council-owned properties in the city, have gained planning to transform the former Western Park Open Air School, on the outskirts of the city, into an office complex and cafe.
Mr Parmar said now planning was in place they hope to reach an agreement to buy the rundown buildings off Leicester City Council. Alongside those plans, he said they also hope to get planning to knock down the former Eco House complex on the Hinckley Road side of the park, to make way for 20 super-efficient Passivhaus homes. They also hoped to buy that site off the council once planning is in place.
The Parmar family was previously responsible for restoring The City Rooms, one of Leicester's grandest buildings, and turning it into a busy wedding and events venue. They also bought Western Park pavilion from the council and after a full renovation made it their home before selling it on.
Following that they redeveloped Belgrave House – on the northern edge of the city – into a 10-bedroom family home and more recently transformed Braunstone Hall, which was also badly rundown, into Winstanley House Hotel, which is run by their son Kiran.
Mr Parmar said: “The new offices are going to be quite trendy with kitchen facilities and showers and we’ll be encouraging people to come in on bikes.
“We’ll be looking for long-term tenants and are looking forward to seeing what demand there is when we start marketing it.
“There will be 15,000 sq ft of space across seven buildings so there will be varying sizes of office available so anyone interested can rent whatever size fits their needs.
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“We looked at all the potential uses for the buildings, such as housing, but they didn’t really lend themselves to anything else. The school is listed so it would be difficult doing anything that was too intrusive or complicated.
“You can’t put retail in there so the obvious thing to do was put in nice, modern office spaces and I think it will do quite well.
“We’re now going through legals [about buying the site] with the council, which have been subject to getting planning.”
The Western Park Open Air School – for children who were recovering from malnutrition and serious illnesses – fell into disrepair after closing 17 years ago and becoming the target of vandals and arsonists.
Two of the original structures are too damaged to realistically be restored, city council planning officers said. These are to be demolished and replaced with new buildings. Another five will be restored and converted into small office buildings. The final building at the far south-east of the site will be extended from the back and converted into a café and community space.
A new bridge over the Western Park Brook is to be added to the site near this building, which will provide access to pedestrians, cyclists and wheelchair-users only. Cars will be able to access the site via the existing bridge.
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