Sale of the Lord Street flats site could regenerate a prominent part of Lower Douglas.

But the site is just one of many along Lord Street earmarked for major development proposals that if - and it’s a big if - they go ahead will transform this area.

Douglas City Council announced last week that it was putting the Lord Street flats on the market.

They had served the community for approaching a century but have been boarded up since 2022 when the last tenants moved out and were relocated to purpose-built apartments on Peel Road.

Their sale will offer up a large area for development. Estate agents Black Grace Cowley are listing it as a development site but say the 56 flats will be sold as a single lot and are ‘ideal for refurbishment’.

Lord Street flats are up for sale
(Media IoM)

On the next block along Lord Street, planning consent was granted on appeal in May this year for the demolition of the former Salvation Army Citadel and construction of a 44-bed hotel.

The proposals (23/00616/B) were submitted by Keith Lord of Hesketh Investments who received unanimous approval from the planning committee in August for another hotel scheme down the road at the Walpole Avenue junction.

Landmark office block Royalty House’s transformation into a 64-bedroom hotel will create up to 33 jobs and could welcome some 28,800 guests a year (24/00572/B).

Across the road the bus station site has been awaiting redevelopment ever since it was demolished in 2001 to create a ‘temporary’ pay and display car park.

The latest proposals, submitted by developers Wyyttavin Ltd are for a mixed use development including multiscreen cinema, offices and 85 flats. Controversially, one of the planned apartment blocks could be up to 14-storeys high, making it one of the tallest buildings in Douglas.

The proposed scheme for the bus station site
Wyyttavin’s proposed scheme for the former bus station site (Wyyttavin Ltd)

As part of the plans, five new bus stands each with a waiting area will replace the current Lord Street bus shelters. An indoor bus information centre with seating, toilets, heating and changing facilities will also form part of the facilities for passengers. 

This application (24/00586/B) is still pending consideration. Wyyttavin says if scheme gets the go ahead from planners, the site could be up and running in two years.

But other schemes for this site have come and gone. Planning consent for a previous scheme by Kane Ltd (18/00846/B) comprising a seven-screen cinema, 80-bed Travelodge, 20 flats and a cafe/restaurant was approved in 2019.

The Quayside North scheme had been making strong progress before Covid hit and then key tenants had to withdraw.

Opposite the bus station is another site, Middlemarch, that had long been earmarked for redevelopment.

The latest scheme submitted in October last year by Middlemarch Ltd, part of the Sefton Group, is for a mixed use development which includes a three-storey leisure and entertainment complex including a casino, as well as offices, 25 flats and a 250-space multi-storey car park.

If given the go-ahead, the Palace Hotel and Casino will move from its present site on the Promenade to become the key tenant for the Middlemarch development, occupying two of the three floors in the leisure complex, offering casino facilities, conference spaces, and entertainment venues.

It is being billed as one of the biggest commercial schemes seen in the town centre for several decades.

The proposed development for the Middlemarch site
Middlemarch is billed as one of the biggest commercial schemes seen in the town centre (Middlemarch Ltd)

Based on the developer’s images, the former police station will remain in its existing location as part of the redevelopment.

This application (23/01039/B) is also pending consideration.

Finally, at the end of the road on Parade Street, Manx Development Corporation says its in the final stages of progressing plans for a ‘mixed-use car park’ on the former Steam Packet site.

The government says this enable the regeneration of the area and crucially support the development of nearby sites.

We shall wait to see what happens.