A former bank and office building earmarked for flats could see a revival of commercial units on its ground floor. 

Midland House, in Colchester's North Station Road, was home to an HSBC until the bank closed the branch in June 2021. 

Since the bank moved out and the two top floors of offices were vacated in April 2022, the building has remained empty. 

New plans to revive Midland house were approved by Colchester Council and developers were given the green light to turn the first and second floor of the three-storey office into 17 flats. 

Those plans also proposed to leave the ground floor for commercial use, but due to a lack of interest from commercial tenants, revised plans looked to add five flats to the ground floor instead. 

The new application says: “All bar the ground floor front of this former office building now has the benefit of residential change of use and also external alterations, however it is proposed to retain the frontage element of the building at ground floor in commercial use as either larger or smaller units in an attempt to aid the potential letting of his long-time vacant space.” 

The five proposed units could be tailored to the needs of new tenants, with internal walls moved or removed. 

Colchester Council refused a prior application to change the window layout of the ground floor, saying it would “make the ground floor less attractive to prospective commercial users” and fail to indicate the difference in use. 

An appeal against the decision has yet to be determined. 

With only minor changes to the external design of the ground floor, the developer is hoping to persuade planners to give the scheme the green light. 

The application says the “relatively minor alterations" to the ground floor front "would not adversely impact" the design of the building. 

Colchester Council will rule on the plans.