Plans revealed for major refurbishment of city centre building

Plans have been revealed to temporarily turn parts of a prominent Nottingham city centre building into Air BnB-style rooms.

The new owner of Portland House on Carrington Street wants to undertake a comprehensive refurbishment of the building, which has traditionally housed students.

However, a planning statement points out that the student accommodation is “very dated” compared to newer developments in the city, and that students tend to move on after a short while – leaving empty rooms which are hard to fill.

Added to this, the statement says that repairs are needed to the building fabric with “evidence of crumbling stonework” around the windows and the window timber itself in poor condition.

Warhinder Khamba has submitted the plans through Zenith Planning and Design Consultants of Eastwood.

Khmaba says he needs to “address the the urgent problem of a lack of income generation” from empty rooms.

The planning statement adds: “It is proposed to tackle this issue by letting some rooms to non-students. This would be on the basis of short term lets / Airbnb type accommodation for those visiting the city either as tourists or on short-term work contracts and would be for a temporary period of three years until the refurbishment works have been completed. It would not be used to accommodate persons in need of permanent accommodation.

“No alterations to the building are proposed and the number of residents would not exceed the permitted number of 55.”

The ground floor of Portland House is home to popular bars Cured and Barley Twist and a Greggs.