A council-owned building in Oxford city centre could be turned into co-working space for start up businesses.

The city council – which had previously planned to demolish the four-storey building at 1-3 George Street – has now applied to convert it to open plan office space for entrepreneurial  occupiers with a retail unit on the ground floor.

The application’s design and access statement says the authority has attracted £1.93 million of Local Growth Funding from OxLEP to deliver new workspaces and describes the building as ‘dated and difficult to let’. A new building was proposed but later found to be uneconomical to pursue.

The statement goes on: “The OxLEP grant funding will therefore be used to enable aspects of the inclusive economy agenda, by bringing forward affordable and accessible space through increased availability and by removing barriers for certain entrepreneurs in less well funded sectors (creative, digital, social enterprise).”

The new plan, drawn up by ADP Architecture, involves a major refurbishment to produce 651 sq m of office space with stores and meeting room in the basement and with a roof terrace. There will be a new lift at the rear.

Image: The building is that with the ‘Solutions’ branding.

© Thames Tap (powered by ukpropertyforums.com).

Sign up to receive your free weekly Thames Tap newsletter here.