Students moved out of Colonnade House
THE company converting Provident Financial’s former Bradford headquarters building into student rooms was forced to move tenants out after the West Yorkshire Fire Service said it was unsafe.
Up to 70 students moved out of Colonnade House in Sunbridge Road, when the fire service issued a prohibition notice against the building’s owner, Salford-based FreshStart Living in November.
The notice is still in force although FreshStart said it has been reinspected and should be given the all clear soon.
The fire service said there were inadequate means of escape and inadequate means for giving warning. FreshStart acquired the nine-storey 1960s building in 2011 and was converting it into 200 student rooms.
It had hoped to have it finished for the start of the 2012-13 academic year, but at the time of the inspection only the top three floors had been completed and were occupied.
A spokesman for FreshStart said: “They [the fire service] are just waiting on two pieces of paper from us before it’s signed off. It’s just a formality.”
Colonnade House was FreshStart’s first student project in Yorkshire. Individual rooms were marketed to investors from £27,500.
Provident moved out of the building in 2010 to a new head office in the Southgate development on Thornton Road.
