Plymouth plans to reach for the skies

PLANS are being worked on which could see several sky-scraping buildings tower over Plymouth.

- WILLIAM TELFORD

Currently, the Beckley Point student block at 23 floors and 78m, is the tallest building in the city – and the whole of Devon and Cornwall.

The Civic Centre, planned to be transformed into flats above a City College Plymouth campus, is 14 storeys high, 58.8m. The three Devonport high-rise tower blocks are each 14 floors.

Plymouth has 73 buildings that are 18 metres or higher. Buildings of this height, which is six storeys, are generally considered to be “high rise”.

But all these will be dwarfed if the four proposals outlined below are built. Here are the details:

1. Shepherds Wharf – 29 storeys. The waterfront could be transformed into Plymouth’s “go-to area” by three skyscrapers, including the city’s tallest building, under a £60m plan. Developers are working on proposals for the derelict former Plymouth Fruit Sales site at Sutton Harbour which would see a 29-storey block of flats, with a hotel at the top, and neighbouring apartment blocks of 23 and 12 floors.

If plans for the Shepherds Wharf development are given approval, the central tower would be the tallest building in Plymouth, and the entire South West, and six floors higher than the Beckley Point student flats in the city centre.

The plans for the former Plymouth Fruit Sales site come with a vision to create two-floors of commercial space, for the likes of coffee shops and restaurants, right on the waterfront. Mike Leech, marketing manager for developer Comcor (Shepherds Wharf) Ltd, said: “It would create a go-to area.”