City centre office building to be turned into student flats

A Glasgow city centre office building is to be demolished to make way for 16-storey student flats.

A developer has been given the go-ahead to knock down five storey Berkley House in Bath Street in order to build the blocks housing 208 student beds.

The studios would range in size from 13.8 to 18 square metres with 1047 sqm of student amenity spaces.

Plans include a gym, cinema room and karaoke room on the lower ground level while the ground floor would house a commercial business as well as a coffee bar, games area and social media room.

The application sparked nine objections including one from city councillor Angus Millar.

Concerns ranged from comments about the scale of the building being inappropriate to complaints about it following a repetitive design. There was also the belief that there is already an overconcentration of student housing in the area.

However two letters of support were also lodged pointing out the benefits of revitalising a brownfield site and bringing in more footfall.

Planning applications committee chair Ken Andrew said he is happy to grant the bed at today’s meeting.

Agreeing, councillor Hanif Raja said: “We need this sort of devlopment and I think we should encourage people to come to Glasgow and invest. This is an excellent opportunity for us to support these types of projects.”

Councillor Saqib Ahmed said building the flats would “free up other residential properties as we are going through the housing crisis.

“It is a welcome development. This could be converted into a hotel in the future if we need to.”

Pointing out the accommodation would sit in the “heart of the city centre”, he said: “The universities are within walking distance in both directions left and right and public transport is very close by.

“Certainly this development will boost our city’s economy and the city centre itself.”

The planning applications committee approved the proposal from McLaren (Bath Street) Ltd And BIA Murray Ltd this morning subject to conditions and a Section 75 agreement for a contribution of about £140,000.