8:28 am, February 2, 2023
Hippo Motor Group has submitted plans for a state-of-the-art new car dealership in Lancashire.
The dealer group is asking for planning permission to build a multi-million-pound showroom on Darwen’s Millbank Business Park.
It bought the site, along with outline planning permission, last year and has now revealed more about its vision for the premises.
The company wants to construct a 660 square metre showroom complete with a canopy and 321 vehicle display spaces.
Inside would be a large reception area with a modern utilities space at the rear. There would also be an upper floor mezzanine consisting of a staff canteen, open plan staff offices, meeting rooms and utilities.
Outside, Hippo wants to clad the building in Black Kingspan Evoke flat panels that will create a stylish black facade.
A statement to Blackburn with Darwen Borough Council says: ‘The proposed usage of the land will be for a new 660 square metre vehicle showroom with a canopy and 321 fenced vehicle display spaces.
‘The building will comprise of a large primary entrance space with front-facing vehicle displays either side of the primary entrance.
‘This is followed by a central reception area with utilities to the rear of the building and sales/managers’ offices and customer waiting areas to either side of the utilities.
The land is currently vacant and the development would likely bring a huge amount of jobs to the area.
‘From the building there are controlled access points to the vehicle storage area with the canopy that creates a pathway for customers to use when viewing vehicles.
‘The upper floor mezzanine is half the floor area of the ground floor and consists of a staff canteen, open plan staff offices, meeting rooms and utilities.
‘The building has been designed with an emphasis on framing the vehicles within the display area to the front of the building.’
The land, formerly occupied by the Lower Darwen Paper Mill, has lay vacant for some time and the development would be likely create dozens of new jobs.
Among those to have announced their support for the application is local councillor Quesir Mahmood.
‘This is a welcome development,’ he said.
‘Hippo is a well know national company and it is good to see it is showing confidence by investing in an important site in Blackburn with Darwen.’
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