PROJECT REPORT: HERITAGE AND CONSERVATION 35


not just the homes – which includes two penthouses front and back – but a courtyard and commercial units. Aiming to reach a high standard of amenity and finish most of the flats will offer private balconies – with the front penthouses facing towards the sea, and the rear flats looing onto a cliff face featuring a natural spring – as well as underfloor heating throughout powered by air source heat pumps). Due to be released early next year, White Rock Heights is the newest project in the 500-strong portfolio of Roost People. The locally-based property developer and management firm has a particular focus on the private and public rental sector.


Once complete, all of the high-spec flats will be released for public sale and the commercial units will be let by the landlord, who will maintain the freehold of the building, with a communal power supply sourced through solar panels on the building’s roof.


HISTORY Founded in 2004 by Patrick Hanlon himself, Roost People are a subsidiary of the group – property owners and developers, with the group managing a number of Hanlon-owned partnerships and companies in Hastings and the surrounding areas. According to Patrick, the properties the company owns span a period of nearly 400 years, starting in the Stuart era – a 1664 pub in the old town of Hastings – and spanning through to the Georgian, Victorian and Edwardian eras. “We pride ourselves on refurbishing, renovating and restoring original housing stock, from Grade II listed accommodation through to properties located in the many conservation areas in our towns – often bringing unsympathetically converted apartments into the 21st


century,” he says.


The company’s main clientele so far have been the NHS and local authorities, with the group providing a range of furnished accommodation for key workers, asylum seekers, temporary accommodation and private rental. Looking towards the White Rock project, Patrick considers what it will bring to the table: “Our new build offering gives us the opportunity to build properties using all the amazing modern methods of building and materials to provide low cost accommodation for the modern era.”


ACQUISITION s the offices of oost eople are also located directly on Hastings seafront, just adjacent to the previously dilapidated building that would become White Rock


Heights, the team had long been aware of the site.


According to Patrick, the property had been derelict for some time, which both the team and others had long noted, and hoped to do something about. Helping things along, the previous owners were reportedly parents of a friend of Patrick’s, and they in fact approached him directly with the opportunity. As such, the site was never even advertised openly on the market before the project was theirs. As soon as Patrick and his business partner purchased the property, the team began to submit planning applications for the development, which as they stand today include nine flats  made up of four one-bed apartments, three two-bed apartments, and two three-bed apartments – two commercial units, a communal courtyard, and a link building with lift and staircase for residential access.


PLANNING


While the acquisition of the property was very straightforward, the planning process was less so. According to Patrick, the main challenges here related to the retaining of the front facades, and the materials used throughout. “Planning complications were introduced by the site being in a conservation area, restricting what could be upgraded and how everything should look on the front of the building.” Cast iron had to be specified for all guttering and downpipes, for example, and timber windows had to be specified on the front facade – “which cost significantly more than the aluminium windows throughout the rest of the project.”


Thankfully, these restrictions have been overcome over frequent meetings with


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