Worthing Borough Council has agreed to partner with the Department of Transport property and regeneration firm LCR to redevelop the site of the former Worthing police station.
The West Sussex council acquired the site for £3.4m in January from Change Real Estate as the firm had not brought forward any proposals for the site since it acquired the land in 2016. The building was closed and demolished in 2009 and the site has lain dormant since.
Previous plans for the site, adjacent to the High Street and next to the council-owned Connaught Theatre and car park, have included up to 150 new homes, as well as a cinema and seven new restaurants.
The deal will also see the small open-air high street car park, at present leased to the council, sold to LCR.
This is to ensure LCR has a stake in the scheme and allows the company to enter a land-pooling agreement with the council. The council will retain ownership of most of the land and continue to operate the car park.
LCR chief executive David Joy said: “The land pooling arrangement is the culmination of many months of hard work and will enable the council and LCR to join forces to provide the best opportunity to achieve a successful redevelopment of the site.
“LCR is working with a number of local authorities across the country as part of a wider remit to support the government’s delivery of homes, jobs and growth.
“Our partnership with Worthing will enable the council to harness LCR’s significant commercial and development expertise which, along with the council’s experience and local knowledge, will allow for an innovative approach to unlocking the site after more than a decade of dereliction, and inject some pace behind the redevelopment to maximise the benefits for the local economy.
Worthing council’s director for economy Martin Randall said: “The council moved in to buy the site this year because we felt this major town centre site had remained idle for too long.”
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