UK: The owner of a prominent Cardiff building has applied to extend a temporary permission allowing it to be used for serviced apartments as well as student accommodation.
Zenith is a distinctive 25-storey city centre building. Acting for owner Fusion Cardiff Capital Quarter LLP, agent Lambert Smith Hampton has applied for a new temporary permission to extend an approval set to expire in August, which currently allows up to 401 rooms within Zenith to be used as serviced apartments. The remaining 274 rooms are maintained as student accommodation.
The application to diversify the use of the building temporarily is made on the basis that the students who would ordinarily occupy the whole of the building are unlikely to fully do so in the coming academic year because of the coronavirus pandemic.
In this current academic year, Fusion said it had used around 50 rooms for service apartments. The extension is required for the forthcoming academic year as the company is unsure of the final booking numbers and needs to have a back up plan. If 500 to 600 student rooms are secured then Fusion said it will probably maintain the 50 serviced apartments. If however student numbers are down significantly, it will use more rooms for serviced apartments.
A permission running for one year from September 2020 is sought.
Fusion Students has implemented the same approach it is seeking for the Zenith building at a number of other sites across England and Wales. The application highlights that allowing professionals to occupy the property would help ensure the maximum occupancy possible.
Serviced apartment occupants will have access to the onsite gym, dinner party rooms, cinema, landscaped courtyard and roof gardens, as well as linen and laundry services and secure cycle storage. Other communal facilities provided, such as the group study, will be for the exclusive use of students.
