Plans In for £800,000 Gym at Altrincham's Station House, for Office Tenants

Bruntwood has applied to build a gym, showers and changing rooms under Station House, the eight-storey office block opposite Altrincham Interchange. The landlord puts the cost at £800,000.

The gym is for the people who work in the building. It is not a public gym. Trafford Council’s register describes the plan as “ancillary staff wellness facilities”, and the planning statement says the gym, showers and changing area are “for building occupants”.

The application, reference 120027/FUL/26, was received on 22 September and validated on Monday 12 October. Bruntwood announced it in its own release today.

What is planned

Station House is a 1960s block built over an open undercroft car park. The ground floor holds little more than a small lobby, lifts and stairs. The plan fills in part of that undercroft.

According to the design and access statement, the scheme includes:

• a 1,200 sq ft gym and “wellness suite” in the infilled undercroft
• five showers, one of them accessible
• lockers, a drying cupboard, a towel service, and vanity stations with hairdryers and straighteners
• a car park reworked into a one-way system, with new secure gates
• new planting, lighting and balustrades at the Stamford New Road entrance
• the entrance canopy sprayed dark green, to match the window frames

The infill would be clad in vertical green metal panels with full-height glazing. New illuminated signage is mentioned, but the statement says it will need a separate application.

One figure differs between the two documents. Bruntwood’s release says the gym is 1,200 sq ft of new ground-floor space. The application form records 93.5 square metres of net new floorspace, which is about 1,000 sq ft.

Six parking spaces go

The building’s car park is entered from Police Street. It is private parking for the offices, not a public car park.

Curtins’ highways technical note gives the numbers:

At present one gated access on Police Street handles cars coming in and going out. Under the plan, cars would enter through a new point at the north-western corner of the site, using the existing gate position. The current exit would stay as the only way out.

The note concludes the change would have no adverse effect on highway safety. The planning statement calls the loss of six spaces “a positive aspect of the scheme” in a town centre this well served by trams, trains and buses. It adds that the emerging parking standard for offices in this location is zero.

Why Bruntwood is doing it

The planning statement says the aim is to “help retain existing occupiers, attract new businesses” and keep Station House competitive as office space. It also argues the showers will encourage tenants to cycle to work.

Bruntwood says more than 50 businesses are based in the building. The release names Zelus Sport, Rise Fibre, London Care and Civica among them.

The gym follows earlier work inside. The sixth floor was turned into nine serviced offices, three office suites and two bookable meeting rooms, and is now fully let, the release says. The first floor has since been refurbished into six more suites.

Sharon Johnson, Bruntwood’s head of commercial, said: “We know the best workspaces need to offer much more than a desk. People increasingly want their working environment to support their wellbeing, give them flexibility in how they spend their day and make it easier to balance work with the things that matter outside it.”

Bruntwood also owns the Stamford Quarter and, with Trafford Council, runs the Foundation workspace next door.

Heritage

Station House sits next to the Old Market Place and Stamford New Road conservation areas. A heritage statement by Levrant, submitted with the plans, concludes the changes would not be visible from any listed building or conservation area and would have “no effect” on them.

What it means for you

• You cannot use this gym unless you work in Station House. For a public gym in the town centre, Altytude Fitness opened in the Stamford Quarter this month, and Trafford Leisure runs the refurbished Move Altrincham leisure centre.
• If you drive into the Police Street car park for work, the entry point and circulation would change, and there would be six fewer spaces. Public parking in the town is unaffected: see our Altrincham parking page.
• You can comment. The application is open for comments on the council’s planning register. The register gives 12 November as both the end of the press-notice period and the target date for a decision.
• Councillors’ power to call applications in to committee ends on 31 October, as we reported last month, so this one will be handled under the new arrangements.

We track other town-centre applications on our Altrincham planning news page.