Bristol developer Cubex in conjunction with Palmer Capital has submitted plans to transform the former headquarters site of Avon & Somerset Fire and Rescue into over 300 new homes together with new high-quality offices for up to 1500 people.

This new project is the second phase of Finzels Reach, by Bristol's floating harbour, the apartments planned will be ‘build to rent’ and include 20% affordable.

Laid out across two apartment buildings, Millwrights Place and Coopers Court, the apartments include rooftop terraces and shared entertainment space along with extensive cycle storage and maintenance facilities. Ranging from seven to 15 storeys, they will also feature co-working space at ground floor level.

Gavin Bridge, executive director at Cubex, said: "We are pleased with the overwhelmingly positive feedback we have received through the consultation and are keen now to press ahead and start developing out our plans to transform the former fire station site.

"It's important to us to create a mixture of types of housing including build-to-rent and affordable, as well as much-needed workspace, to help curate a balanced community across the Finzels Reach neighbourhood. By building the new office space speculatively, as we did at Aurora, we'll be able to help provide the space Bristol needs as it grows its economy.”

The new 116,000 sq ft Grade A contemporary office building will be built speculatively, before tenants have been secured.

The plans also include £1.2M investment in improvements along Temple Street, Counterslip and Temple Back, including improved dedicated separate cycle and pedestrian routes with wider pavements, one-way traffic routes to reduce the dominance of vehicles, new ‘pocket parks' and trees, seating and soft landscaping. Together, these are designed to make the surroundings more attractive to people and knit the new development into the wider area.

Work on the redevelopment of the former Avon Fire and Rescue site is likely to start this summer, subject to planning approval.