TURNING an office building in the centre of York into a high-end hotel would damage York’s economy and make it harder to drag up the city’s low average wages, it has been claimed.

City of York Council’s own economic policy department has warned against the conversion of Yorkshire House, the former Aviva office, saying it would harm the jobs market and perpetuate a false idea that businesses to do not want offices in York. Heritage experts have also voiced fears about the ambitious plans.

Boutique hotel chain Malmaison has been eyeing the 1960s building, on the corner of Rougier Street and Station Road. Last month plans emerged to add an extra storey and a large rear extension, creating a 124-bed hotel with 36 serviced apartments, but an economic expert at the council has said losing the offices to the hotel trade would be bad for the city’s economy.

Although York has high employment, the city has lower than average wages due in part to the dominance of lower-paid sectors such as tourism and care, principal strategy officer Mark Alty warned in a letter to planners.

As an office building, Yorkshire House could accommodate five times more jobs than it could as a hotel, his letter said, and if the building were occupied by a company similar to Aviva those jobs would likely come with higher-than-average wages, unlike the potential hotel jobs.

Although a high-end hotel brand would be good for the city’s tourist trade, allowing Yorkshire House to be converted to would damage efforts to bring higher value jobs and increased wages to York, he said.

Mr Alty goes on to say that demand for office space in York has been suppressed for years because of the very short supply, but there is strong evidence of businesses actively seeking the kind of accommodation a refurbished Yorkshire House could provide.

“In summary, while there are no doubt some positives economic outcomes from new hotel jobs, on balance the negative impact from the loss of considerable viable city centre office space considerably outweighs these from an economic perspective, especially in relation to the city’s stated objectives about wages and high value jobs,” he added.

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Meanwhile, owners of the neighbouring hotel, The Grand, have engaged a firm of planning consultants to object on their behalf.

O’Neill Associates have written to planners saying firstly that plans for a rear extension to Yorkshire House would harm views to and from the Grade II* listed building of The Grand, and to say that Yorkshire House could, like other offices in the area, be upgraded to become much-needed top class office space.

However, developers Yorkshire Ventures are behind the Yorkshire House scheme, and their chairman Richard Jackson has dismissed the economic argument, pointing out the building already has planning permission to be converted into apartments, so the principle of losing its office use has been established.

Besides that, an independent report commissioned by them for the planning application showed Yorkshire House could not be viably converted into modern office space.

The hotel would create 90 jobs, he added, plus all the construction jobs created during the conversion, and would be a significant boost to the hotel offering in the city, he added.

Meanwhile, Historic England have objected, raising fears about what the seven-storey rear extension would do the setting of The Grand and the Bar Walls; and they have questioned the impact the roof extension could have on important views across the city from Clifford’s Tower and the central tower of York Minster.