Plan to convert eyesore Wolverhampton office block into flats

Plans have been submitted with Wolverhampton Council to turn the top four floors of the five-storey Premier House building into homes.

Riccardo Bragoli, of Wednesbury-based Interiors Direct Ltd, has applied for permission to redevelop the office block, which has shop units and restaurants at ground-floor level.

If approved, the plans will see the building converted into a mixture of studios, one- and two-bedroom apartments, ranging in size from 413 sq ft to 695 sq ft.

The ground floor will be retained for commercial use.

Mr Bragoli said there was parking to the rear, and there were also public car parks in the immediate vicinity. 

The building, at the bottom of Darlington Street, next to Ring Road St Andrew's, has had a 'to let' sign outside it since at least 2009, and at the moment the door to the upper floor is secured with a padlock.

It was named and shamed by business leader Henry Carver in 2023 in his 'Dirty Dozen' eyesore buildings which he said shamed the city.

Mr Carver, managing director of Carver Building Supplies, spent £30,000 of his own money hiring experts to compile a report on how to breathe new life into the city.

Premier House is next to Crown House, the former Inland Revenue office block which has recently been converted into flats. It is also close to the Smithgate development, which will see more than 1,000 new homes created in the city centre.

The proposals will now go before Wolverhampton Council's planning department.