The five-storey 1970s brutalist building built has remained empty since the DWP moved out of the office in 2018.
In 2021, television company Tinopolis submitted plans to move their existing town-centre headquarters on Park Street to Crown Buildings, with plans to refurbish and extend the building, which sits next to Llanelli Magistrates Court.
Those plans never came to fruition however, and now new proposals by construction company Hacer is for a residential-led development, with 30 apartments all of which would be classed as “affordable”.
This includes 13 one-bedroom apartments, 9 two-bedroom three-person apartments, 7 two-bedroom four-person apartments and one five-bedroom five-person apartment.
The redevelopment of the building would see the demolition of a three-storey structure for “associated parking use”.
Hacer have proposed a “biophilic living” approach to the development, in a similar way to their Swansea development on Kingsway in the city centre.
Planning documents say this approach “enables residents to reconnect with nature, and to create a cohesive community to address increasing issues relating to social exclusion, and moreover, respond to the climate emergency with innovative technology.”
Hacer has proposed to call the development “Biophilic / Bioffilig Llanelli”.
GJP planning consultants currently have a public consultation open on the plans, with anyone who wishes to make representations about the proposed development needing to do so by 4 June 2025.
Question marks now surround the future of Tinopolis in Llanelli, with the company’s current Park Street building said to be in a poor state of repair, and the firm looking to potentially move out of the town to Carmarthen or Swansea.
Swansea Bay News has approached Tinopolis for comment.
(All images: Hacer / GJP)
