A DEVELOPMENT which will bring new homes and a hotel in a 38-storey skyscraper next to Croydon College has been approved.
The scheme is a joint venture between Phoenix London and Regional and the college, which owns the site.
It is a single tower, part of which will be 38 storeys tall and part 16 storeys, while the scheme also includes a plan for a basement car park.
The development will feature a 225 room high-end hotel and 150 new homes, which will be a mixture of one, two and three-bedroom apartments.
Twenty per cent of the homes will be affordable.
The developers are also setting aside £2.9 million to provide additional affordable homes elsewhere.
There will be new restaurant and leisure facilities, community space and public realm improvements to College Green.
Planning councillors indicated they would like to see college catering students involved in the running of the restaurant/cafe.
The sale of the site will also raise around £2.75 million, to help meet the cost of improvements to the college's further education provision at its Fairfield building.
This work will include upgrading six science laboratories, removing remaining asbestos from the building, creating a training centre for health and social care and improved provision for construction trades training.
Labour councillors want to see 30 per cent affordable housing in new developments, but these plans were drawn up before they took control of the council in May,
Councillor Paul Scott, chairman of the planning committee, said: "On balance 20 per cent was as good as we could have got."
The contribution to improving the college, he said, had been an important factor in approving the scheme.
Dilip Kesevan, managing director of Phoenix London and Regional, said: "We're a local business and many of us are Croydon born and bred so we want to see the area reach its full potential.
"With a hotel to encourage inward investment; more than 150 new homes and a significant package of affordable housing and community benefit, our plans are the next step towards a more connected Croydon where the whole community is included in the area's regeneration."
Work on the development is expected to start in mid 2015.
