The crumbling Co-operative building in Huddersfield is most likely to become student flats, it has been revealed.

After years of anticipation that developers were interested in revamping the town centre eyesore, a proposal has finally been unveiled.

It has emerged that a company wants to add three floors on to the top of the four-storey building, to create a 140 bed student digs complex.

A side extension will also be required.

Apart from Wilko, the building has been empty since 2004 when nightclub Heaven and Hell closed.

Kirklees Council bought it in 2007 with the intention of restoring it but its plans were scuppered by the financial downturn.

After years of false starts, council regeneration chief Clr Peter McBride said last month that unnamed developers were moving ahead with a feasibility study for bringing the building back into use.

He said they were “serious” and had a “track record of delivering.”

A similar extension and revamp has recently been completed at Standard House in Half Moon Street by Huddersfield based SKA Developments.

It was revealed this week that Kirklees Council is planning to set up a £25m property investment fund, which could contribute some money to speeding up the project.

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The council owned building on New Street requires extensive renovation with all the windows and roof needing replacement.

Commenting on designs not yet made public, the council’s conservation team has raised some concern about a large glazed box that will jut out beyond the front of the building.

It said the views of the clock tower and dome from Chapel Hill need to be considered and must not be dominated by large extensions.

The officer comments: “I am not against the extension...but I remain to be convinced the additional increase in height of three storeys is necessary without a cost analysis.”

The officer says Historic England must be consulted.

Planning officials say: “The proposed extensions would significantly alter the appearance of the existing building as well as impacting on the Conservation Area and potentially affecting the original Co-operative building adjacent.”

The document indicates that officials would likely consider the need to regenerate the building overrides heritage concerns.

The Co-operative building was built in 1893 and then extended in 1936, leaving an unusual mix of Victorian and modernist architecture.

Council documents reveal the concrete frame of extension – the section closer to the ring road – is suffering from deterioration.

Kirklees Council’s Strategic Planning Committee will next week have the chance to discuss the proposal before a planning application is submitted.