Restaurant and apartment plans for major redevelopment and extension of prominent riverside building

Shropshire Council has been asked to consider fresh plans for Frankwell Quay Warehouse – a prominent building between Shrewsbury's Frankwell Car Park and Theatre Severn.

The application is trying to secure permission to repair, renovate, and extend the building – with plans for a significant extension rising up behind the building's existing roofline, adding a third and fourth floor.

Under the proposal the ground floor would become a restaurant/cafe, with nine residential apartments spread out on the floors above.

The application is a joint proposal from Frankwell Quay Developments and the site's owner – Engrailed Cross Investments.

A design an access statement submitted with the proposal says the existing floors are in a "very advanced state of deterioration" and would be removed.

They would be replaced, with a steel frame then put into the building to support them.

The application says the café restaurant will have access from the street, while an entrance lobby for residential apartments is proposed "off the main street with a dedicated lift access and communal bin and cycle storage".

Three apartments are proposed for the first and second floors, with three 'duplex' apartments intended for the new third and fourth floors.

The application outlines how the development will affect the appearance of the building, and the area – particularly from the East.

It explains how the extension is designed to 'recede' behind the line of the old building – and will be clearly separated with a "continuous line of glazing".

The design and access statement says: "The proposed extension emerges from behind the first ridge line . This allows the existing building to remain visually intact in terms of its existing roofline and facades.

"As the extension is set behind the ridgeline, and set back from the existing façade the form of the existing building is preserved. Therefore the ‘memory’ of Frankwell Quay’s industrial past is also maintained.

"The predominant elevation, to the east, faces the existing car park. This we consider the ‘front’ of the building.

"In this elevation the new extension recedes behind the line of the old.

"The extension first appears behind the ridge line. To express clear separation between old and new, the first floor of the extension is articulated as a continuous line of glazing.

"The second floor of the extension recedes further – articulated as a series of small pavilions sat on the glazed ‘plinth’."

A decision on the plans will be taken at a later date.