Still a bargain - just not for me!

A planning application has been submitted for:

"The change of use of the upper floors of the former Perry Vale Fire Station, 199 Perry Vale SE23 to provide 9, one bedroom, 2 two bedroom and 1 three bedroom self-contained flats."

No documents online yet.

I suppose the ground floor may be developed for retail then?

... or just left empty.
That seems to be the preference when building new flats (City Walk a.k.a. Finches, next to Sainsburys, 81-83 Dartmouth Road - prediction for the future, and many similar developments across London).
Developers are far more interested in the quick money and assured income from residential and are happy to leave empty retail units.

Not something to do with the failure to let them perhaps?

A certain amount of retail and commercial, and office space is often required by planners in mixed use developments. When I worked on new housing developments in Hackney the planners required us to produce B1 space which we knew would not have a market hence it remained empty and produced a financial loss against the scheme. It seems sensible to produce retail units but not necessarily everywhere. The issue therefore requires careful market analysis. I doubt if developers are leaving these spaces empty deliberately as they need to assume a certain level of return at appraisal stage and vacant premises hits their pockets hard.

Forest Hill is not East Dulwich where despite the recession there appears to be very few vacant premises in Lordship Lane due no doubt to the gentrification of the last decade.

At least the premises are not unsightly due to the hatched hoarding and are at least there is a provision there in case of any potential improvement in market conditions in the future.

Who bought it. Rumours are that it's Tesco (who are great at buying property and sitting on it for years).

The owner is a company called Milesahead Properties Ltd based in Streatham. No reason to believe that they are a front organisation for Tesco, especially given that the residential units are being developed first.

I don't like the hatched hoardings that keep appearing on the high streets. As empty units I don't think these cost the developers anything in terms of rates, so there is no incentive for them to bring in new businesses. In the last year three new coffee shops and an estate agent have opened in the town centre. Yet none have chosen to use the vacant site next to Sainsburys, an ideal location for a coffee shop in particular. A similar situation exists on Perry Vale outside the station. My suspicion is that the developers are not interested in making money out of these properties and are sticking with a rental demand that is too high for the market. However, this is a little off topic so I want go on about it any further for the moment.

I look at the passing trade beside City Walk and wonder why no-one has snapped up the retail unit for a newsagents / convenience store. Now the Perry Vale entrance to the station is permanently open, such a business would do well. Like the Co-Op, but for people walking in the other direction.

It would seem to me more likely that the setup costs are too much for the new units, which are not fitted out beyond concrete block walls. If developers had to bring the units up to a basic standard, they would be far more likely to let out.

The planning documents still aren't online yet. I Googled the building's address (199 Perry Vale) to see if anything interesting came up and I found a church claiming to operate a bible college from there!

"Fountain of Life International Bible College & Seminary
Main Campus & Administration Centre
199 Perry Vale, London SE23 2NE"

However the post code doesn't match the building number. SE23 2NE is the other end of Perry Vale, at the parade of shops near the South Circular.

Very strange.

Documents are now online.

There are a lot of drawings to look through but it appears that the ground floor does not form part of this planning application.

According to the Executive Summary of the Heritage Statement "a further application will be made for the change of use of the ground floor to create a church and ancillary spaces" - presumably the Fountain of Life International Bible College. Not the best use at all of a space that could be put to far more productive use.

Yeeees, they could at least start with a jazzier name. Like 'Treasure Land' on Waldram Park Rd. My sister in law is convinced that's a brothel.

Not another church! I was looking forward to a nice civilized bar/restaurant in that space - there's already a church across the road from the fire station and another 2 or 3 within walking distance, why another one?

It is difficult to speculate on a planning application for a church that has not been submitted, but I could imagine that parking would be a serious problem on Sundays, when parking from the church across the road already makes parking around the area quite difficult, and there isn't a lot of parking space available at the best of times.

I certainly never expected anyone to post that a Church would be more of a disruption than a bar, but these are strange times.
Why do so many people need to drive to church. Surely The Bible never mentions the car.
It is a lovely old building so hopefully as much will be retained as possible.

I don't think anybody posted anything of the sort. Somebody posted that they would prefer a restaurant to a church, especially when there was one located across the road. He/she is entitled to that opinion, whether you agree or not, it is a personal preference.
I never mentioned a bar, although I could imagine a bar/restaurant would be a great use of the space, just like the fire station at Waterloo. I'm pleased that they will be submitting a planning application prior to using the building as a church, which is more than was done in the case of 35 Sunderland Road.

It all depends on the parking provision. I think we all must have seen the disruption the church at the old snooker hall can cause, or events at the crystal hall. The bizarre thing is there is a perfectly decent car park 3 minutes walk away but no, people would rather plonk themselves outside WH Smiths.

I would much rather see a restaurant or bar as there is a dearth of quality establishements (apart from the Honour Oak) on this side of the tracks.

I agree. If peopled walked to church no problem and the cards parked outside W H Smith and Sons really annoy me as well. This has been going on for years why do the Police never give them a ticket.

I've been looking at the plans with amateur interest. I am not sure if it is my printer having a problem with scale, but lot of the bedrooms are either single ones (around 6m2) or very narrow, so that it would be difficult to put a double bed inside to sleep on.

Will there be a response from the Forest Hill Society?