PETERSFIELD Town Development Committee members are due to meet developer's representatives to discuss “embryonic” proposals for an office block and care home in the centre of the town.
Before their meeting at 3pm on Friday, April 6, in the Town Hall, members will meet experts from Hunter Page Planning (HPP) from Cheltenham in Gloucestershire.
They will put forward proposals for the site of the now-demolished Paris House offices on Frenchmans Road.
Members will hear HPP wants to build a three-storey 75-bedroom care home and separate three-storey office block there, with car parking, bin stores and gardens for residents and visitors.
Council spokesman Steve Field said: “The HPP interest was unexpected and completely out of the blue.
“They have asked to meet the committee to talk through their ideas, which at the moment are at the embryonic stage.
“The HPP proposal is completely separate to the McCarthy and Stone one for the same site.”
McCarthy and Stone has been linked to the site since last autumn when the demolition of Paris House, at one time the UK headquarters of beauty products firm Estee Lauder, was announced.
It is seeking to build a care complex of 64 one and two bedroom Extra Care apartments with a club lounge, wellness suite, guest suite, bistro restaurant, and landscaped gardens, with 51 parking spaces.
Although the care company has taken advice on its proposal from South Downs National Park Authority planners, it hasn’t yet submitted a planning application for the site.
But in the Petersfield Neighbourhood Plan the land is earmarked for employment use, not residential.
And the promotional brochure for the site says it would be ideal for a headquarters office-style building, or three detached buildings for separate offices, or even six industrial units.
McCarthy and Stone says its complex will employ nurses, carers, cleaners, fitness experts, restaurant staff and gardeners, and will meet the ‘employment’ criteria.
By suggesting an office block for the site, the HPP proposal might meet the neighbourhood plan employment requirement halfway.
Mr Field said: “But until the committee hears their ideas, members don’t know what they are proposing.”