You can now have your say on a planned £100m regeneration scheme in Lancaster to include a food hall/music venue, hotel, student accommodation, multi-storey car park and more.
Public consultation has opened on the proposed plans for the three-acre Brewery Lane site in the Lancaster Canal Quarter.
Developers aim to transform the former Mitchell's Brewery site, bordered by Moor Lane and St Leonardgate and lying between the city's shopping centre and canal path.
Lanmara Developments propose a food hall and music venue, a neighbourhood GP health centre, a hotel from an international lifestyle brand, a day nursery, flexible education space, and affordable purpose-built student accommodation alongside improved public spaces connecting the site to Lancaster's city centre and canal.
The consultation opened on June 30 and runs until July 14, with an in-person event taking place at The Dukes theatre on Moor Lane in Lancaster on July 9 from 4pm to 8pm, where members of the public can view the emerging plans and speak to the project team.
Consultation materials, including an illustrative masterplan and a feedback form, are also available HERE.
This says that plans include new public spaces "providing an opportunity for the (Dukes) to re-orientate to face onto the new public square".
Another design image showing how the area could look after regeneration. Credit: Lanmara
They also include a new 'mobility hub' of 255 spaces would include a multi-storey car park with cycle and scooter storage, EV charging, a new convenience store and cafe/bar; and a new education block "to support the city's education needs, employment growth and further inward investment".
The plans say the proposed 125-bed hotel would "support business, tourism and weekend uses into Lancaster as well as the forthcoming Eden Project".
They say the new food hall/music venue of 500-plus capacity would involve re-use of the Grade II listed Malthouse building, also known as the former Mitchell's Brewery, and include office space.
The new medical centre would be "opportunity to consolidate GP provision into the heart of the city" and include a GP Practice, pharmacy and dental practice.
The blueprint also says it would accommodate the Grand Theatre's "aspirations for improved servicing and longer-term business strategy".
The affordable student accommodation of a proposed 150 beds/150 cluster rooms would "underpin the destination as a mixed-use scheme".
Traffic restriction and calming would be part of the public realm of the scheme, alongside "high quality landscape" and new restaurant units.
The site has stood largely derelict for decades, following previous redevelopment attempts that failed over the last 20 years.
Lanmara - a joint venture between companies Marco Living and Axis-RE - has already completed demolition of dangerous and derelict structures on site, and is now preparing to submit a planning application later this summer.
"Lancaster hasn't always had the kind of investment we think it deserves," said Nick Mullins, co-founder of Axis-RE.
"Brewery Lane is a genuine opportunity to change that - bringing an international hotel brand, community spaces, and a much-considered mix of uses into the heart of the city.
"We've taken our time to get this right, and now we want to hear what Lancaster thinks "before we take the next step."
Russ Worthington, co-founder of Axis-RE, said: "I grew up in Lancaster and still live here, so this isn't just another scheme to me.
"We're under no illusions about how much this matters to the community, and the impact it could have on the local economy. Getting it right matters to me personally as well as professionally.
"The 9th of July is a chance to look at what we're putting forward and for fellow Lancastrians to have a real say before it goes to planning.”
The proposals form part of a wider vision for Lancaster's Canal Quarter, and the developers said they are intended to support Lancaster City Council's ambitions for neighbouring sites, including plans for housing at 'Coopers Field' - the Upper and Lower St Leonardgate car parks.
Subject to planning permission, Lanmara said they anticipate a delivery timescale of three to five years.
There has been talk of regenerating the Canal Quarter for decades but plans have never come to fruition.
In November 2025, developers were granted planning permission to demolish buildings in the Brewery Lane area of Lancaster and for a temporary change of use of vacant land to a public car park.
In 2025 there was a public backlash to plans to knock down the Kanteena arts venue as part of the plans, although its management had already announced they would be closing at the end of 2025, saying "when we began building Kanteena at Brewery Lane six years ago, we always knew it was meant to be temporary".
It was then announced that Kanteena would stay open longer than originally planned, and events are advertised at the venue for the rest of 2026.
The developers said plans for a long-term music venue on the site were made after listening to feedback from supporters of Kanteena.
In a separate scheme in the Canal Quarter area, 39 new homes - being delivered by South Lakes Housing - have also been approved on the site of the former Nelson Street car park.
There are also longer-term plans to build on car parks on St Leonard's Gate and Edward Street.
Read more: LISTEN: First glimpse revealed of £100m Lancaster regeneration vision - Beyond Radio
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