New £300million Exeter bus station plans revealed - including ten storey luxury hotel and more restaurants

A £300million transformation plan for a key site in the centre of Exeter has been unveiled.

There are 250 homes, two hotels, offices and a new civic centre planned for the major development at Exeter Bus Station, Sidwell Street and Bampfylde Street.

And Karime Hassan, Chief Executive, Exeter City Council, said he'd like to see it done within five years.

He said: “This is the most important site for the city. It has been identified over the last two decades as a major redevelopment opportunity within the city centre.

“In the long term, the High Street is struggling and as a city we support the high street and we see this as an opportunity to cement what we have got.”

Watch how the scheme could take shape

This latest vision comes after the Crown Estate pulled out of its Princesshay extension plans in September 2017 due to ‘market conditions’.

Since then, commercial property experts at JLL has concluded that there is good private sector interest in creating the £300million vision that will be almost twice the size of Princesshay but with less shops and more housing.

It is designed to have people living and working in the city, spending in the shops and restaurants and will be funded by private developers.

And it will be kickstarted by the council-funded St Sidwell Point leisure centre and new bus station.

But since the plans were last on the table - the price has risen from £39.92million to £51.8million.

Mr Hassan said it is partly due to inflation but also by the authority having to pick up costs for things like access and site levels that would have been picked up by Crown Estate in the original scheme.

Now, Mr Hassan is asking councillors to approve an additional £11.88million borrowing on top of the £39.92million already approved to build the St Sidwell’s Point leisure centre and the new bus station.

The Passivhaus design pool and is expected to bring in 500,000 visitors a year - twice that of the RAMM.

He said: “That £50million investment by the city council starts to open up big private investment.

“The one thing that we can do as a local authority is to bring clarity when there is so much uncertainty.

“Brexit is a big issue and that is why we need to get on with this. We know there is market interest in Exeter, we now need to land it. We can’t afford to wait for years.”

Members will also need to say yes to £300,000 to cover procurement costs to find a developer for the wider scheme and £90,000 to fund a feasibility study for a multi-purpose performance venue that will sit at the heart of the development.

Mr Hassan said that the interest in build-to-rent homes, more commonly seen in Bristol and London, is in response to the booming employment market in Exeter for young professionals.

Of all the jobs created in the city between 2014-17, 47% were in the digital and tech sector.

And he said that he was challenging the city planners to consider multi-storey housing.

He said: “If we are going to build 12,000 homes in the city as we have to do then we have got to look at that kind of density.”

Earlier in the year the council announced Kier has been appointed as the preferred contractor to build the new bus station and leisure complex after a competitive tender process.

If councillors back the recommendations, it is hoped that final contracts for the main build programme will be signed in December.

Details of the vision, which also includes the potential to relocate the Civic Centre, will be discussed by the council’s Leisure Complex and Bus Station Programme Board on Tuesday, November 27.