Proposals have been put forward for what could become the 40th cafe, restaurant or takeaway in Felixstowe town centre.
The plans have been drawn up to turn a former shop in a prime position at the bottom of Hamilton Road, top of Bent Hill, into a continental delicatessen with cafe area with two new two-bed flats above.
Community leaders are giving their backing to the project – delighted that another empty outlet will hopefully soon be reopening.
The premises were for decades home to menswear shop Coes – which relocated a few years ago to a unit in the central stretch of Hamilton Road – and more recently has been home to Felixstowe Community Radio and has also been an antiques shop.
Now the property owner Mateusz Kubot, of Ipswich, has applied to East Suffolk Council to change the use of the building to create the The Seaview Deli & Café with the two floors above converted into flats.
He says he is excited about the project and is hoping everything will go smoothly so that the ground floor can open for business before the end of the summer.
Adrianna Tyrek, of agents Architect-4u Ltd, said: “The owner would like to renovate the whole building.
“Ground floor as before will be commercial use shop with additional coffee shop use. Existing first floor commercial use will be converted back to residential use, and second floor will be as before residential space.
“Top floor will gain two roof dormers facing the sea. On the back of the house there is proposed a small single storey extension to accommodate customer and staff toilets.”
The coffee shop will create four new jobs – two full-time and two part-time. It would open from 8am to 6pm Mondays to Saturdays and 9am to 3pm on Sundays.
Felixstowe Town Council has “welcomed the application which would further underpin the town centre and tourism offer”. It has urged planning officers to approve the plans.
Suffolk County Council is concerned at the lack of adequate off-street parking for the shop and flats.
At present, Hamilton Road has 27 premises – about one in six – which are cafes, restaurants or offer takeaway food. There are a further 10 in adjoining streets.
Two other applications have been granted planning permission in Hamilton Road – Hasan Kaymak has been granted consent to change the former Sweet Hut into a cafe, while JD Wetherspoon has consent for a public house with restaurant on the site of the former Central Surgery.
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