New Images Unveiled on Cathedral Quarter development as piling begins.

As the piling and foundations for the three new buildings on the Cathedral Quarter development commence on site, new images have been unveiled showing more detail on how the ground floor retail and restaurant units on the office and hotel sit and interact around the new Square and Gardens.

This £25 million town centre regeneration project is being pioneered by Blackburn and Darwen Borough Council, Blackburn Cathedral and Maple Grove Developments to create a new mixed use quarter around the Cathedral fronting the railway station and a new bus interchange. This first phase of the Masterplan will comprise a new 6 storey BREAM Excellent Grade A office building of 32,000 sq ft, a 60 bed Premier Inn hotel and car park.  A new Clergy Court will provide offices, library, apartments and townhouses, together with a public refectory for the Cathedral. All these buildings will be arranged around a new public square and gardens with completion scheduled for September 2015.

The office has two ground floor units to let. The larger sits opposite the hotel with views of the square and the Cathedral, being ideal for a coffee shop, restaurant or financial services. The adjacent bus and rail stations would also make this ideal for convenience retailing. The smaller unit overlooks the main thoroughfare which connects the travel interchanges with the town centre and is ideal for newsagent and deli use.

A 3,500 sq ft restaurant unit will be on the ground floor of the 60 bedroom  Premier Inn alongside the entrance to the hotel. All ground floor retail and leisure  units are being  marketed by Brady’s of Manchester. The Offices are being jointly marketed by Knight Frank of Manchester and Trevor Dawson of Blackburn. for a high quality tenant.

Councillor Maureen Bateson, Executive Member for Regeneration said

This development will transform this key gateway into Blackburn  town centre and is a major part of our town centre strategy to bring high quality buildings and uses into this side of town. It will also help to increase footfall into the town centre by attracting visitors and create jobs.”

Graham Pilkington, Maple Grove Developments said

We are very excited with the progress that is now being made on site. Once the current piling work has been completed, the next phase of the development will be the construction of the Steel Frame for the Office and Hotel building.This is expected to commence early September and will be completed before Christmas.

Once the Steel Frame is up people will be able to gain a real sense of the space that is being created by the Cathedral Quarter.”

You can see some of the images here: https://www.flickr.com/photos/blackburn-with-darwen/

Listen to Cllr Maureen Bateson, Executive Member for Regeneration, talk about the images here: