MAJOR plans to convert a well-known toy company’s headquarters into over 90 flats have been submitted.
Bellway Homes Ltd has put forward a scheme to demolish the vacant two-storey office block on Vanwall Road, Vanwall business park, Maidenhead, to build 91 apartments and car parking spaces.
The empty block has been on the market since 2019 and was the home of American toy company Mattel, which was founded in 1945 and has globally recognisable brands under its belt, such as Barbie, Hot Wheels, and He-Man action figures.
The developer wants to bulldoze that over and add two five-storey buildings with 91 car parking spaces, 20 per cent of which are proposed to have electric vehicle charging points, and landscaping works.
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The apartments are proposed to be a mix of studio, one, two, and three-bedrooms. 64 are proposed to be market, 22 affordable rent, and five are proposed to be affordable shared ownership.
All flats will have private balconies and the building will have a communal podium garden within the centre of the site for residents to use.
Prior approval plans to convert the office block into 28 flats were approved last year to establish if the principle of residential development at the site was acceptable.
Planning officers at the Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead were concerned the ‘monolithic’ five-storey building would be the ‘most prominent building’ in the area as it is surrounded by predominantly two-storey structures.
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The developer argued buildings within the business park vary in height and the size of the proposed scheme is within council policy.
The council is yet to decide on the planning application. The plans can be seen on the local authority’s planning portal with the reference code 22/01391/FULL.
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