Restaurant and shop plan at Wolverhampton Gateway

The Gateway already houses a new Porsche dealership, and developers have now submitted plans for a Costa Coffee drive-thru and another 5,000 sq ft building to house shops, a restaurant, or both.

It will complete the redevelopment of a former eyesore patch of unused land at the top of Stafford Road, at Junction 2 of the motorway and just around the corner from Wolverhampton's prestigious i54 site – home to Jaguar Land Rover's fast-growing engine factory and a string of other companies.

Plans for the final piece in the site's jig-saw have just been submitted to Wolverhampton council.

The developers believe the new buildings will soon attract takers keen to share the limelight with one of the UK's leading coffee shop brands and a world famous car company.

Bob Tattrie, managing partner at Trebor Developments, said: "The submission of this planning application leads to the next step in delivering this exciting retail/restaurant led development on the prominent Gateway Wolverhampton site and we believe the units, up to 5,000 sq ft that have been identified for restaurant/retail use, will attract a great deal of interest through our letting agents.

"The development is due to commence on site in Spring 2016 for completion next year."

The first phase of work on the Gateway site was the Porsche dealership, which occupies more than half the available land. Trebor says it is now due to open early in the New Year after owner Pendragon, a major UK car sales business, completes fitting-out work.

The Costa drive-through and retail/restaurant building comprise phase two. The new plans include space for 67 car parking spaces. Access to the site will from Stafford Road. Although there is no prediction as to the number of jobs the project may create, the architects predict the site will be used by up to 10 employee vehicles and visited by around 200 customers cars a day.

In their submission to the city council, project architects Corstorphine & Wright said: "The design concept for the retail units is taken from a mix of the new Costa unit, whilst remaining sympathetic to the new Porsche car dealership.

"A palette of high quality materials, featuring a low level band of facing brickwork sitting below a metallic silver cladding panel, with timber clad feature picture frames to perimeters.

"The buildings have been located on site to ensure they presents themselves as a true landmark on this key gateway site, hopefully leading to the site becoming a well-recognised local landmark on what is a very prominent site."

A report from project consultants Applied Planning added: "Besides a drive-through coffee retailer, no other operators at this stage have entered into contract. However due to the size and location of the units it is clear that the development would be eminently suitable for those business providing support to local business, such as stationers and food and drink uses.

"The site is also suitable for small scale specialist retailers such as kitchen, bathroom and specialist DIY companies. In terms of scale, the units are of an appropriate size and in an appropriate location for the business case outlined above and will meet the needs of the local businesses and the wider population.