Plans to transform a neglected former cinema and its surrounding site into a luxury hotel and flats have been delayed by up to six months because of the credit crunch, architects revealed today.
Wolverhampton Triangle, bordered by School Street, Worcester Street and Little Brickkiln Street, is poised to undergo a £35 million redevelopment with 90 apartments and a four-star hotel led by city-based architect Tweedale. But bosses have admitted today the date for starting could be moved back three to six months.
Builders are becoming less willing to take on projects with houses and flats due to plummeting property prices.
Tweedale’s Nick Chapman said: “With the current economic climate we have had to set it back for a couple of months and reassess the situation.
“Hopefully we will be moving in the next three to six months to get on the site but it is basically delayed.
“There is a general slowing up in the Midlands area in the building of houses and apartments but the hotel makes the site very appealing and more viable.
“We haven’t gone out to tender as yet and are just trying to structure it to get it out to contractors.”
The company has put the emphasis on a design sympathetic to the history of the area, which is near Penn Road island, with a former cinema set to be transformed into a luxury hotel The proposal intends to preserve the Scala Cinema building as the central part of the facade fronting the Worcester Street conservation area.
The frontage of the cinema will be refurbished and repaired and will include a contribution to public art in the glazed frieze above, reflecting cinema billboards from times gone by.
The lobby of the four-star Ramada hotel will reflect the era of the cinema with colour schemes from the period of original construction.
The five retail units will be aimed at the boutique market to complement the 300 million Summer Row shopping scheme. Work is expected to last 18 months.
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