Shrewsbury's historic Prospect House could be converted to flats

Prospect House, which was originally a malting building in Belle Vue Road dating back to 1888, would become home to 37 one, two and three-bedroom apartments under amended proposals put forward by car dealership Furrows.

The three and four-storey building was recently bought by Furrows having been marketed with an asking price of £1.8 million.

Previous plans to change the use from office space to residential and to convert it into 34 apartments were granted in April this year.

A design and access statement submitted as part of the new planning application says: "This revised proposal looks to create 37 apartments through the rationalisation of the internal circulation space and communal areas along with providing private external garden space for the majority of the ground floor apartments.

"The interior has been significantly remodelled for the office use with nearly all of the original character and visible original features removed. The only exception to this is the ceiling plaster work and timber and stain glass windows in the former office of the malting building on the ground floor of the north-west corner.

"Following a review of the proposal put forward, a revised scheme is proposed which maintains and enhances the external appearance of the building, improves the landscape of the site, creates well designed and arranged apartments, minimises the need for structural intervention, provides a rational to the internal communal circulation spaces and provides maximum space to the proposed apartments and provides private external garden space to the majority of ground floor apartments."

The plans include five one-bedroom apartments, 23 two-bedroom apartments, three with three bedrooms as well as four one-bedroom flats and two with two bedrooms for social housing.

Previous plans to include a cycle store and gym have been removed and additional residential space created.

Base Architects, who have done the drawings for the project, said the external appearance of the building would remain mostly unchanged apart from improvements to windows and doors, extra roof lights and changes to the heights of window sills to allow for more light.

The current 70 parking spaces will also be retained in the plans.

When buying the property, Rachael Downey, a director of the Furrows Group, which has dealerships in Shrewsbury, Telford and Oswestry, said:

"As a family, we are passionate about Shrewsbury and we see this as a very attractive addition to our property portfolio."