Bournemouth: Terence O’Rourke secures planning for £100m of new town centre development

A single company in Bournemouth has helped over £100 million of development in the town to get off the ground.

Planning consultancy Terence O’Rourke, based in Deansleigh Road, has secured planning approval for building projects that will change the town’s skyline over coming years.

Among the projects with secured planning are:

• Terrace Mount, a development by THAT Group featuring a 172-bedroom four-star Hilton Hotel (including ‘Sky Bar’ and leisure club), a 120-bedroom Hampton by Hilton hotel, together with 59 residential apartments and public and private underground car parking.
• The Citrus Building, a curved mixed-use development of 64 apartments with ground floor café/restaurant in the Horseshoe Common area. The building is also designed by Terence O’Rourke. The project, led by Bournemouth Development Company, is due for completion in early 2015.
• The Bournemouth Development Company’s redevelopment of Madeira Road West Car Park to provide purpose-built accommodation for 378 students of the Arts University Bournemouth, together with an adjoining 382-space public car park to serve the Lansdowne and Old Christchurch Road area.
• Bournemouth University International College, a development by Watkin Jones with Kaplan International Colleges and Bournemouth University which, when complete, will welcome 600 international students every year on preparatory programmes for undergraduate and postgraduate study.

Andrew Elliott, technical director at Terence O’Rourke, said: “A diverse mix of new schemes will support the vitality of the town centre and hopefully attract more businesses, tourists and inward investment to this bustling part of Dorset.

“Having a well-planned town with good infrastructure, homes and leisure facilities is also very important in safeguarding the skills of the local workforce going forward; making Bournemouth an attractive place to live and work will help us retain talent emerging from the highly-respected universities right on our doorstep.”

Terence O’Rourke, which has a 97% success rate on planning, has been based in Bournemouth since its inception in 1985 and has played a major part in development in the town over the years. It conceived the concept of the Grand Garden Walk to link core town centre attractions with the Lower Gardens and seafront. The company has also helped deliver other high-profile buildings in the local area, including the new passenger terminal for Bournemouth Airport.

Further afield, it counts big names such as Grosvenor, McLaren Automotive, Warner Bros and the Grainger among its clients.