Plans are officially available to view for a project that would see an office building demolished to make way for modern apartments at the riverside in Reading.
There have been embryonic plans to demolish the Norman Place office building in Vastern Road and replace it with apartments for more than a year.
The building was acquired by Packaged Living and Bridges Fund Management in July 2023.
Now, you can see the plans the development team has devised for the site.
Rather than converting the existing offices into housing, the developers want to demolish Norman Place and construct a ‘U’ shaped apartment block.
The project has been dubbed ‘Waterfront Square’.
CGIs of the scheme show the south bank of the River Thames becoming a hub of activity, showing a ground floor cafe and public realm improvements.
The apartment block will contain 254 flats, of which 15 will have three-bedrooms, 116 will have two-bedrooms, 105 being one-bedroom and 18 will be studios.
Of those, 13 will be designated as affordable at local housing allowance rates.
That is 5.12 per cent of the development, well below the 30 per cent of flats being affordable according to Reading Borough Council’s affordable housing policy.
For drivers, 18 car parking spaces would be provided within an undercroft car park, with three accessible bays and two car club bays.
All of these spaces would have capacity for electric vehicle charging. There would also be 136 parking spaces for cyclists.
You can view the application by typing reference PL/24/0958 into the council’s planning portal.
