Eastbourne hotel could become flats

Arden Hotel, in Burlington Place, was a guest house with 14 bedrooms but stopped being used for this purpose on November 1 this year. If approved by Eastbourne Borough Council, the site would be converted into five flats - one one-bed and four two-beds. At the back of the five-storey Victorian terrace building is space for two cars to be parked and these spaces would remain, with six new cycle spaces proposed.

The pre-application response from the council says: “The site is located within the secondary sector of the Eastbourne Tourist Accommodation Area. The loss of tourist accommodation in this area is resisted. However, it is accepted that hotel uses, particularly those in the secondary sector which is set back from the frontage, may not remain viable and it is important that in these finances, flexibility is provided to allow the conversion to other uses that are appropriate for the area. A residential use is considered compatible with the surrounding environment.

“The business has been marketed since 2018 and the price has been reduced over this time in order to encourage buyers, it is likely that this would be sufficient to justify a change of use to residential on viability grounds.”

Documents reveal the hotel was first put on the market in January 2018 for £775k and that asking price has reduced over the years. From May-November this year the property was re-advertised at just less than £600k and no offers have been received from hoteliers close to the asking price. This has caused the owners to accept the developer’s offer which is subject to obtaining planning permission to convert the site into five flats.

According to the plans, no external alterations would be made to the front of the building other than windows and the door being repaired, and it would all be repainted an off-white colour too.

Plans say the proposal would make ‘a valuable contribution’ to Eastbourne’s housing supply and ‘make efficient use of an existing building that has been demonstrated to be unviable in its current authorised C1 hotel use’.

Members of the public can comment on the plans until January 1 and the target determination date is January 26 (reference: 220924).

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