Developer Fred Pritchard has unveiled his second multimillion facelift scheme for the centre of Stafford in as many weeks.
The latest plan involves a #100 million revamp of the 11-acre Stafford gas works site at site at Castletown/Doxey as a mixed use leisure, commercial and hotel development.
It follows a bid for planning permission for a proposed #75 million scheme to breath new life into the landmark St George?s Hospital site.
Mr Pritchard, chairman and chief executive of Cannock-based Chaseregen, said that between them the two schemes are set to create up 2,000 construction and end-user jobs.
?I think this could be the start of a whole new ball game for Stafford, which needs modern new facilities such as these,? he said.
Mr Pritchard described the old gasworks site, currently used as a car park, as ?one of the brownest field sites that one could ever come across. They do not come any more brownfield than this?.
The proposed Castle Wharf project includes plans for a seven-screen cinema, a bowling alley, a community radio station, a children?s adventure play centre, managed office space, restaurants and a ?museatery?, a combined museum and restaurant.
Also included are a 60-bed three star hotel and wildlife visitor facility for the nearby Doxey marshes, which is listed a site of scientific interest.
Mr Pritchard said Castle Wharf had been designed to fit in with its surroundings, and details include the use of green roofing tiles and blue-green glass.
?The whole scheme has been thought out over a lengthy period of time and the form it creates is not just flat and slab sided,? he said.
?It is curved, it is interesting and takes its cue from the notable landmarks of Stafford.
?The scheme is spectacular but sensitive with its architecture but without degrading Stafford as the county town or affecting the historic core.?
The Castle Wharf site is close to St George?s, where buildings dating back to 1815 are expected to be restored and put back into use.
The St George?s scheme, which Chaseregen is planning in conjunction with regional development agency Advantage West Midlands, includes office space and apartments.
?There is a lot of synergy between the two, with Castle Wharf supplying the entertainment facilties for St George?s,? Mr Pritchard said.
He added: ?Reams of documentation have now been set to Stafford Borough Council applying for planning consent, including environmental statements, ground condition reports, planning statements, responses to the Stafford core framework document, Riverscape study and Stafford Vision documents.
?We now await the council to make their decision on this particular project which will add many family entertainments and values into Stafford along with the cultural and community projects that are also very much a part of this major regeneration scheme.?
