Lou Kendal has submitted a planning application to South Lakeland District Council for the partial redevelopment of K Village. This includes the conversion of the largely vacant ground floor retail space into a 69 bed Travelodge Hotel alongside retained retail and office floorspace and the introduction of approximately 88 new one-bedroom apartments over the first, second and third floors on the Lound Road elevation.

The riverside amenities including Terrazzo, Anytime Fitness and Costa Coffee will be retained, and the proposals also include improvements to the internal courtyard of K Village as well as a new car parking system.

Public consultation events were held in June and were well attended by local residents. The events provided an opportunity to meet the project team and provide feedback on the plans. The response was overwhelmingly positive with 86% of respondents stating their support for the proposals.

Over the past few weeks, Lou Kendal has been considering the feedback received and all comments have been taken into consideration in the development of the final plans.

A spokesperson for Lou Kendal said:

“The proposals offer a significant investment opportunity for K Village and Kendal to revitalise the struggling shopping centre. Since the launch of K Village in 2010, it has proven to be continually difficult to successfully attract retail tenants to the development.

At present over 80% of the existing commercial space remains vacant, and it is evident that alternative viable uses need to be found for this space. The inclusion of a Travelodge hotel within the vacant space represents an important opportunity to secure a major tenant for K Village which will simultaneously have significant benefits to Kendal town centre and K Village existing and future tenants.”

It is expected that the plans will be considered by South Lakeland District Council’s Planning Committee later this year. If the plans are given the go ahead, it is anticipated that work on K Village will start immediately on receipt of planning approval.

Anyone wanting further information can call our Community Information Line on 0844 556 3002 (Monday-Friday, 9:00am-5:30pm) or email us at kvillagefuture@lexcomm.co.uk.