Sunday 30 January 2011

For Sale: Gate Quays, Marine Gardens, Margate CT9 1RU


Found on London auctioneers Allsop's website:

The awful development on Marine Drive, that ended up loads taller in height than it was supposed to be, and has always stood empty since it was built. Really what is the point of this kind of regeneration development?

Update:
I don't know the planning status on 5-6 Marine Drive. But from this lengthy Leasehold Valuation Tribunal decision (PDF) from February 2010 between a Flat 17 and the freeholder Comehomes Cororation Limited it is supposed to have been built 15 years ago. 12 flats were sold on long leases and the remainder vacant. Sounds like a miserable affair with the leaseholder suffering from unfinished communal areas, no letterbox and no provision of service charge accounts. They were hounded with £25 a pop letters from the freeholder! Nice.

14 comments:

  1. MA is there some sort of planning blight on this building? I mean if it doesn’t comply with its planning permission would the new owner have demolish part of it?

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  2. I don't know Michael. Have posted an update. I think the planning permission might have been eons ago.

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  3. Strewth MA I just read the thing, I suppose they were hoping for vacant possession, I do wonder what the answer is for some of these monsters, a huge one opposite me has just sold for about £160.000 and I am worried it will just remain a speculative purchase waiting for the market to rise.

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  4. So ugly, so depressing. If anyone local was in any why responsible for that foul building i hope they sleep well in their beds for in time they will have to answer. MA any positive news on the sudden renovations of the two run down buildings opposite TC?

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  5. I don't think it looks that bad myself (apart from being too big). Certainly not as "ugly & depressing" as The Turner Thingy...

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  6. Do you like the metal grills on the ground flour windows, the constant rubbish strewn all around, the anti social behavior, the empty shop units below (never occupied) It lets down Margate Peter and thus it lets you down.

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  7. Peter, why is it so huge and out of scale with the adjoining Georgian Terrace? What is the idea for the window detailing? Why are the ground floor shop unit windows a middle eastern stylee? It's just nasty and cheap and more importantly a blight on a prime seafront location. The reason it is empty is because it is nasty and not finished.

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  8. The building is a blight on the seafront.

    Awful pastiche and totally out of scale. The extra floor added without permission makes the oversized building look ridiculous. The detailing of windows and balconies are in contravention of the permission (they should have been "Georgian" to match those on the terrace).

    It is a monument to the stupidity of a greedy and stupid developer who somehow thought this monstrosity would meet demand and make him money. Instead, the flats have added to the 800 and odd empty flats in Margate Old Town and Cliftonville

    It is also a monument to the lack of vision and will to enforce on the part of the Council's Planning Department. When will they start making developers take down things like this and show developers they cannot get away with it?

    Whet a disgrace. I hope they go bankrupt. We get the legacy of awful building, at least it is a consolation if the builders don't make money from it.

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  9. Developers never go bankrupt in Thanet, but members of their extended families might! Take those EU grants and run.

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  10. Surely the developer can't have had any grant money? That would be quite a scandal...

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  11. maybe i could get a grant to buy it and turn it into a bellydancing commune - at least that would be keeping with the windows!

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  12. Well it's better than "Godden's Gap"...

    And I honestly don't believe it's quite as "huge and out of scale" (in comparison to the sorrounding buildings) as the Turner Centre.

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  13. I think Godden's gap is a stroke of genius compared to this building. "Less is more"? If Jimmy G's boys have some spare matches...

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  14. "Well it's better than "Godden's Gap"..." both let you down Peter.

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