These are the first images of a £100 million development that would transform a rundown area of Hove.

Three firms of architects are battling it out to win the lucrative contract to deliver the redevelopment of the Brighton and Hove bus depot site and surrounding land. Each has submitted plans featuring residential tower blocks, a cinema complex and offices for the six-acre site in Conway Street, Ellen Street and Fonthill Road.

The proposals include plans for more public space for pedestrians incorporating the station at Hove.

The focus of one scheme are twin 70-metre-high towers. The second scheme features five dome-shaped towers, with the tallest 60m high The scheme, which is yet to be named, will involve the building of several hundred homes and at least 100,000 square feet of office space – enough for 1,000 jobs.

The final plan will include an element of social housing. The site is owned by Matsim Properties, Brighton and Hove Bus Company and Brighton and Hove City Council. The developer hopes the plans could be approved by the council by November. Work on construction could then start in 2013.

The scheme is directly tied to the successful sale of the Argus headquarters in Hollingbury to Brighton and Hove Buses. The bus company would turn the Hollingbury site into a depot, freeing up the Conway Street site for development.

Matsim Properties ran a competition for architects to come up with proposals for the site. The three architects in competition for the scheme are Russ Drage in Fleet Street, Brighton, LCE Architects in Western Road and Orbit in London.

Russ Drage has obtained planning for the Worthing Gateway which is a large scheme of over 200 residential units and a multiplex cinema and conference centre and offices and restaurants.

LCE was responsible for the redevelopment of Jubilee Street in the centre of Brighton.

The winning designs will be announced on Tuesday and plans will then be drawn up.

Craig Ritchie, the director at Matsim Properties, said: “This is a long overdue opportunity to link Hove Park, George Street and the seafront to form one continuous pleasant pedestrian thoroughfare in central Hove.

“As well as providing much needed modern business space to replace the substandard buildings currently in Conway and Ellen Street, the schemes have a distinctive feel to them, offering a nine-screen Vue cinema and space for visual art exhibitions both internally and externally.”

A spokesman for Brighton and Hove City Council said: “A developer has had an informal discussion with us. But there have been no formal discussions with the council as a planning authority and no planning application has been submitted.”

Gill Mitchell, the leader of the Labour group at the council, said: “I hope the successful scheme will a genuine mix-use plan to a high standard with community facilities and public open space. It should be something that provides a cohesive use of the space incorporating affordable housing.