Plans for part of ex-tobacco factory site could bring 200 jobs
PLANS to redevelop part of the former Wills tobacco factory site at Hartcliffe which include a hotel, care home and three-bed houses have been submitted.
The 12-acre site next to the Imperial retail park off Hartcliffe Way used to be the car park for the famous cigarette-making factory which employed 3,500 workers during its heyday in the 1970s.
Now the car park is a wooded area lying between the retail park where the B&Q store is based and Hengrove Way.
It has been divided into four plots for redevelopment by the owners, London-based The Junction which also owns the retail park.
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If the multi-use scheme goes ahead, then it could provide more than 200 jobs.
Plot One, on the corner of the traffic light junction which forms the entrance to the retail park, would be used for a pub with car parking.
Next to it – Plot Two – would be an L-shaped hotel with 60 beds that is expected to provide ten full-time and 30-part-time jobs.
Plot Three would see five two-storey units which could be used for research and development offices or light industrial use. They are expected to provide about 150 jobs. The area opposite the existing Pizza Hut would be a car dealers and showroom.
A 30-bed three-storey care home would be built on the site nearest the former factory which is being converted into one and two-bed eco-apartments.
Behind the care home, there would be 31 three-bed houses and and 12 flats for low-income tenants. The documents submitted to the city council say the developers have shown the plans to the Imperial Park Community Forum, a group of 30 local residents and stakeholders, who have given their unanimous support.
A presentation has also been given to the East Dundry Neighbourhood Partnership.
The plans will be considered by councillors at a city council planning committee on a date to be fixed.
The former cigarette factory was the largest in Europe when it opened in 1974 but a fall in demand, mostly due to the health risks, led to the factory closing in 1990.
It is now a listed building because of the steel girder-frame construction which is believed to be unique in this country but common in North America.
A spokesman for The Junction said: "We are pleased to confirm that we have submitted four outline planning applications for the land adjacent to Imperial Park and are now awaiting responses from the council about a range of possible uses for the land.
"As we await the council's decision, we continue to consider alternative and beneficial uses for the site."
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