Plans to redevelop part of Chatham's Pentagon Shopping Centre have kick-started with demolition work now underway. The old bus station ramps beside the taxi rank are being pulled down by DDS Demolition, with completion expected by the end of the year. This will make way for a new public square with space for small restaurants, pop-up retail kiosks and market stalls in reused shipping containers. Improvements will also be made to the existing taxi rank and entrances to the Pentagon Centre. The demolition work is part of plans to redevelop the empty office block Mountbatten House that sits above the shopping centre into flats, which were approved in April this year. It will see Medway Council's own housing arm, Medway Development Company (MDC), convert and extend the 12-storey building to create 164 flats. A rooftop bar with unique views across Medway will also open to the public. The proposals, drawn up by Lyall Bills & Young Architects and C.F. Møller Architects, were put forward as part of the Council's ambitions to buy the empty office block from the current owners through a process known as a Compulsory Purchase Order (CPO).
It is not yet known whether the CPO has been finalised, but it was first earmarked in 2019 when it emerged that Mapeley Gamma did not wish to sell the building to Medway Council. An application by Mapeley Gamma to convert the empty offices into 112 apartments was approved in 2018 - however, this never materialised.
Richard warr
17/9/2021 16:17:04
About time they starting in prove in Chatham waste all these years old bus station
Mike Walters
17/9/2021 20:25:17
I would have preferred to see the old bus station used for coaches to boost tourism to Chatham , but too late now . Comments are closed.
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August 2023
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