The existing site, left, with the proposed alterations, right Pictures: Briffa Phillips Architects

Dorchester building to be converted into 23 flats and small business hub under new plans

Tait ap EllisAugust 12, 20250 Comment0

A FORMER builder’s merchant in Dorchester could be partly demolished and converted into 23 apartments and a small business centre if plans are approved.

Applicant Sheriff Construction is trying to develop land at the former Gibbs and Dandy building on 4 Maumbury Road.

The plans would see 23 two-and-three-bed apartments created on the site, with seven of the homes to be affordable.

The existing heritage warehouses would see a change of use to a small business centre hub.

The site, which has been vacant since 2020 and is dilapidated, has had several plans to redevelop its building rejected by Dorset Council in previous years.

The small business centre and start-up hub Picture: Briffa Phillips Architects

The plans said: “The land represents a wasted opportunity in such a sustainable location being so well serviced by public transport.”

The site plan Picture: Briffa Phillips Architects

Building A – a builders’ merchants – would be demolished under the plans and replaced with a mixed-use building comprising ground floor employment, three and a half storeys of residential dwellings and landscaped borders with trees.

Building B – a storage building and car wash – would be replaced with two and a half storeys of “attractive residential dwellings” with a ground floor employment space.

Building C would be renovated into a new small business centre and start-up hub, which would be called The Yard, taking its name from the historic timber yard uses at the site.

Building D would be renovated into a children’s creche or nursery on the ground floor with flexible workspaces or community meeting room on the first floor.

Picture: Briffa Phillips Architects

A new vehicular access is proposed to the North on the Great Western Road.

The plans said: “Insofar as benefits, with 23 units proposed of which 7 would be affordable, the proposed development would make a good contribution towards the district’s housing shortfall and provide these in a location that is conveniently close to local facilities, services and public transport links.”

To view and comment on the plans, visit the planning section of Dorset Council’s website and search reference P/FUL/2025/00984.