Mystery surrounds Brighton's "ugliest building" (From The Argus)

Mystery surrounds Brighton's "ugliest building"

1:00pm Tuesday 22nd December 2009

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Mystery surrounds the future of a building dubbed the ugliest in Brighton and Hove.

Anston House, in Preston Road, Brighton, was named in a list of sites Brighton and Hove City Council and Brighton and Hove Economic Forum identified for future development.

Both want to turn the building, which has stood empty since 1988, into office and residential space, but confusion remains over who owns the site.

According to the land registry it is owned by Bridgetown Properties but the company was dissolved in August this year.

Bridgetown bought it in 2007 for £10.5 million, a record price in Brighton and Hove for a site its size.

The cost, which works out at £17.5 million per hectare, was lent to the company by Cheval Property Finance PLC and principle creditor Investec Bank UK Limited.

However Investec deny it now owns the property.

A spokesman for the bank said: “Due to confidentiality we can’t really comment on anything that’s being done currently.”

A spokesman for Cheval said it is up to Investec as the principle lender to “do something with it.”

In last week’s Argus business supplement it was revealed that Brighton and Hove needs to find an extra 20,000sqm of office space by 2016.

Tony Mernagh, executive director of the Brighton and Hove Economic Partnership, said: “Ideally we would want Grade A office space on the ground floor and possibly another storey above that and then residential above that.

He added: “It’s a complete and utter detraction on a major gateway to the city centre."

A council spokesman said: “As soon as it becomes clear that someone is in a position to develop the site we’ll be actively encouraging them to come up with a plan for a mixed use development."

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