Essential Living has won full planning permission to redevelop the Berkshire House office block in Maidenhead, Berkshire, into private rented stock.
The plans for 68 PRS homes, voted in by a 10-to-one majority, received a detailed consent with conditions around detail design and materials.
The development will provide studio flats along with larger one and two bedroom homes.
It will also include a club lounge, top floor terrace, a gym, two office/meeting rooms and second floor landscaped communal amenity area. There will also be a 24-hour concierge reflecting Essential Living’s ambition to create a service-led culture in rental.
Construction will begin early in 2014.
The 14-storey scheme is believed to be the first office-to-residential private rented sector conversion to win approval.
Essential Living is the UK’s first developer and operator of rented homes and has a pipeline of over 1,500 properties across London and the South East.
Martin Bellinger, chief operating officer at Essential Living, said: “We’re delighted to have received approval for our plans to re-develop such an iconic yet underutilised building in Maidenhead. Alongside the improved connectivity that Crossrail will bring, we intend for the development to act as a figurehead for the regeneration of the town centre, encouraging more people to live centrally and revitalizing the local community.”
