Details for 601 flats plan at Broad Street Mall Reading

New plans have emerged to build four huge towers at Broad Street Mall which could total 601 apartments.

Of those, 271 one-bed, 290 two-bed and 40 three-bed apartments are proposed, along with new space for stores and restaurants.

Details of the proposed development were revealed at a public consultation in the mall.

Although there is planning approval to build 422 apartments and a 101-room hotel at Broad Street Mall, the new owner of the site AEW has devised changes.

Representatives of the development team, which include Stantec engineering consultants and residential provider McLaren Living were on hand to answer questions.

Explaining why the previous plan is being changed, a representative for Stantec said: “Since it was designed, more work has been done on the construction deliverability.

“It would have been really disruptive to the car park, as it would have involved punching cores through the existing structure columns.

“That would have been problematic not only in terms of the construction but also operational issues with the mall itself.”

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The new scheme involves part demolition of the rear of the mall so that the towers can be built from the basement and ground level up.

The rear of the mall is mostly unoccupied, with Sushimania holding a unit near it and some of the space being used as storage for CultureMix Arts.

The development team said any loss would be replaced with 1,501 metres of commercial space divided into eight units.

A CGI of the new pre-application scheme for Broad Street Mall, showing a fronting onto Dusseldorf Way in Reading town centre. Credit: AEW / McLaren Living

A representative of McLaren Living said: “We’re trying to move people rather than lose people.”

He went on to say that any current occupiers could be relocated into vacant units elsewhere in the mall.

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Questions remain over car parking, both for future occupants and shoppers.

No new car parking will be built, and it is uncertain how many spaces will be lost as a result of the development.

The previous plan also involved building a 101-room hotel that would replace the closed Eva’s nightclub, but approval for the hotel has since lapsed with the developers preferring to provide more apartments.

A CGI of the old plan for Broad Street Mall - this was the proposed hotel with 101 bedrooms for guests which would have replaced Evas nightclub in Hosier Street, Reading. Credit: Moorgarth / Inception Reading Sarl

The approved plan also had to be revised as the law requires multi-storey buildings to have two staircases and new minimum space of apartment standards have been issued that the previous plan did not comply with.

The development team is holding a consultation before official plans are submitted to the council.

The consultation for fresh plans to build flats at Broad Street Mall in Reading. Credit: James Aldridge, Local Democracy Reporting Service

The McLaren Living representative said: “This is an opportunity to talk to people about what they think is a good idea, because we still have got a lot of time to change our designs, to an extent.”

Details can be found on the Broad Street Mall future website here.

You can also attend a second consultation event at the old Next unit in the mall taking place from 3.30pm to 7.30pm on Wednesday, July 19.