AN office block described by its owner as "the second most ugly building in York" is set to get a £2 million facelift.

A planning application to revamp Prudential House, next door to the Odeon Cinema in Blossom Street, has been submitted to City of York Council planners by property investors The Helmsley Group, and its clients the Blossom Street Venture.

The 1960s building, which was acquired by Venture in 1999, has been occupied by a series of rail-related companies - lately by Network Rail.

Staff of Network Rail were in any event preparing to move out of Prudential House and into new premises at Jarvis House, where Network Rail bought the lease, along with other Jarvis properties, in a £25 million deal last year.

If planners give the project the go-ahead, the Helmsley Group will start 12 months of work on giving the building a new frontage as soon as Network Rail moves out.

It will also create an extra floor, increasing its size from 32,000sq ft to almost 40,000sq ft.

A spokesman for the Helmsley Group, which said only Stonebow House in York was uglier than Prudential House, said: "Already we have been having talks with a number of other rail-related businesses, all of them based in York."

The proposal should be considered within three months. The planning application comes as Odeon chiefs are considering a £1 million revamp of the cinema.

York's Parliamentary Labour candidate, Hugh Bayley, said regional managers intended presenting modernisation proposals to company bosses within the next few weeks.

If that goes ahead then it could mean a new look for that stretch of road.

Helmsley's Richard Peak said: "We have just completed the construction of Meridian 2 in part of Prudential House's former car park at the rear of the property and we intend to mirror its design when we refurbish Prudential House. It is in an excellent location and we expect to have tenants queuing up to move into Prudential House once it has been brought up to date and given an overhaul."

Updated: 10:14 Tuesday, April 12, 2005