ONE of Huddersfield town centre's largest and ugliest buildings could be demolished and replaced with a plush, state-of-the-art complex.

St Peter's Building, on the corner of St Peter's Street and Lord Street, may be replaced by a building featuring leisure facilities, offices and flats.

The empty building, formerly owned by Huddersfield University, has long been considered an eyesore.

Now the owners, regeneration agency Yorkshire Forward, are seeking a business partner to help them design and construct a new building.

It is hoped the new building will spur redevelopment in that part of the town centre and create new jobs.

Yorkshire Forward hopes the building will serve a mixture of public and private uses with a ground floor housing retailers, food and drink and other leisure facilities.

The upper floors will provide high-quality accommodation and office space.

Work on the new building, which is expected to be of similar dimensions to the old one, is not expected to start until summer at the earliest.

St Peter's Building was opened by Princess Margaret on February 3,1965, as the new headquarters of the YMCA in Huddersfield.

It was later acquired by the university and became home to media and theatre studies.

Many of the students also lived in dormitories in the building.

The university sold the building in September, 2004. It has been empty ever since.