Plans for White Hart building include pub and retail units

Spread Trustee Co Ltd submitted the application for Weighbridge House, the property that includes Le Pollet Food Hall, as well as the sites of four former businesses – the Miss Nob shop, Hansen’s Grab ’n’ Go, the White Hart pub and Barbados nightclub.

In 2016, permission was granted to turn the ground and basement floors into a large supermarket. Those plans lapsed in January 2019.

However, the latest application is very different and seeks to retain much of the current layout of the building, with a pub and two shops.

Chris Lovell, from Lovell & Partners, acting on behalf Spread Trustee Co Ltd, said negotiations for the site were taking place.

‘We are in talks with a number of possible tenants, for both the retail units and the restaurant/public house,’ he said.

In the application, project architect Paul Dowinton from Tyrrell Dowinton Associates said the building required a full refurbishment to bring it up to modern standards. And while that work was carried out, his client had decided to look at how the building was used.

‘The existing building provides office, retail, residential and leisure accommodation,’ he said. ‘This application seeks to retain these uses, but relocate and improve the space, without the need to extend and increase the size of the building. Great care has been taken to ensure that all the changes accord with the style and proportioning of the existing building.’

The plans could see the two retail units on the ground floor of the building, with the option to use part of the basement for retail or storage. A pub would also be kept at the northern end of the building.

‘The public house will be fully refurbished, while the basement nightclub space will provide kitchen and toilet facilities,’ Mr Dowinton said.

In a bid to get more flexibility the current smallest retail unit would be lost, allowing the other two retail units to gain more space. The pub and nightclub areas – which totalled 750sq. m – would be scaled back to just over 500sq. m for the new pub.

The upper levels of the building would remain as offices and flats.

The White Hart pub was first recorded in the Press directory in the early 1930s under publican E. H. Zabiela. It closed its doors on Saturday 2 March after proprietor the Liberation Group said its lease had expired. Liberation Group has been contacted by the Guernsey Press about the latest plans.

Sandpiper CI, which owns the food hall, has previously said it was looking to have a Morrisons branch in the building.

• The planning application can be viewed at Sir Charles Frossard House.