Harlow's Conservative Council has completed the purchase of the derelict Occasio House site to enable the delivery of its plans for the regeneration of the Playhouse Quarter.
The council completed the £1m purchase last week on the same day it bought the Harvey Shopping Centre.
Occasio House has been empty and derelict since 2016. Its buildings are covered in aluminium composite material (ACM) cladding which is like the cladding used on Grenfell Tower. Therefore, the whole site will be demolished and redeveloped as part of the council’s plans to transform College and Playhouse Square.
Back in July the council submitted to government a public-backed £20m Levelling Up Fund bid to support the transformation of the area into an Arts and Cultural Quarter which includes:
- · A new live music venue
- · Upgrades to the Playhouse
- · New pedestrian focused and engaging public square for events, outdoor performances, cinema, and outdoor dining
- · Contemporary bar and café
- · Artist and maker studio spaces
- · High-quality residential apartments
- · Flexible studios for creative and performing arts, rehearsal space, events, smaller and outdoor performances, and community uses
- · A new art gallery and associated spaces for literary arts, spoken word, education events and visiting exhibitions and installations
- · Green pocket park with natural play installations
- · Accessibility provisions including disabled parking and accessibly designed spaces
- · Upgraded and secure underpass beneath Haydens Road
The council is expected to hear the outcome of the bid at the end of January.
The Occasio House buildings were used as private accommodation and services for young people up to 2016. They never reopened and following the tragic Grenfell Tower fire in 2017, the substantial cost of replacing the cladding and bringing the buildings back into use has posed significant challenges. Over the last 3 years, this position has been exacerbated by increases in construction costs, rendering the reuse and refurbishment of the current building unviable. About 18 months ago the cost of bringing the buildings back into use was estimated around £7m.
The council has long planned to buy the site and completed the purchase using funding allocated in its capital programme. The council hopes to start demolition work early in the new year and construction works of the redevelopment shortly after – subject to Government approval of the Levelling Up Fund bid.
Councillor Dan Swords, Deputy Leader of the Council, said that the council will do what it takes to regenerate Harlow’s town centre, he said:
“The completion of the purchase of the Occasio House site on the same day we bought the Harvey Centre truly shows that we are getting on with our plans to regenerate, support and renew Harlow town centre. There is no doubt that the demise of Occasio House is a sad one – it has stood derelict, unfit for use and blighting the town centre for too long. The action we are taking will ensure we inject new life into this part of the town centre and restore pride.
“Our plan is to redevelop the site into a new high-quality residential development as part of a thriving new Arts and Cultural quarter for the town centre. These major redevelopment plans will transform our town centre and we are getting on with the job of delivering so that no longer are these just plans, but the reality that residents see when they come into the town centre.”
“I want to make it clear to residents that this purchase will not detract us from the delivery of our other priorities. We will be continuing to invest in all our regeneration work such as improving and repairing existing council homes and building new council homes.”
