Leicester city council has won detailed consent for a new development on the site of its former headquarters building on New Walk in the city centre.
Council planners gave the multi-million-pound project the green light on Wednesday night.
The 1970s concrete blocks of the New Walk Centre – dubbed Faulty Towers – were flattened in February and will be replaced by two buildings of up to five-storeys totalling 50,000 sq ft, with a central tree-lined square linked to New Walk and an open thoroughfare connecting the 1.8-acre site to Welford Road.
Financial firm Mattioli Woods announced that it had prelet the entire office element of the scheme last week. It plans to relocate 300 staff from its existing premises at Grove Park in Enderby. The second building will comprise 54 flats and two shops or cafés on the ground floor.
Now that the scheme has won consent, local developer Ingleby will acquire the freehold interest from Leicester city council.
The scheme is a key priority for the council. Leicester city mayor Sir Peter Soulsby said: “The area of land is a prime development site in the heart of the city and I was determined from the outset that New Walk Centre would be replaced with a development which would be beneficial to the surrounding businesses.
The first phase of the development will complete by Q1 2017.
