THIS is the £60m vision that will transform Southampton’s dilapidated former Fruit and Vegetable Market into a new complex of flats and shops.

Posh new apartment blocks, public space and rows of shops will replace the largely disused commercial buildings in the city’s Old Town if the dream becomes reality.

The developer behind the plans has now handed a planning application in to the city council and expects to hear councillors’ verdicts in March.

Once a thriving fruit and vegetable import market, most of the units are now disused, and the site is a key part of the city council’s masterplan to transform a number of important sites across Southampton.

A previous scheme to develop the site off Queensway and Bernard Street, which included a covered market hall, homes, shops and offices, failed to come to fruition.

New complex But now the Fareham-based Hampshire and Regional Property Group (HRPG) have come forward with £60m plans for the new complex at the site.

The new flat buildings in HRPG’s plans would replace the dilapidated former commercial buildings on the one hectare site and would contain a total of 281 apartments in buildings standing up to seven storeys high.

Thirty-five per cent of the apartments will be affordable homes.

There will also be 156 car parking spaces at the site, with a new public space created near to Back of the Walls.

About 30 jobs could be created in the new shops on the ground floor of the site, while dozens more positions would be created during construction work.

Daily Echo:

The current Fruit and Vegetable Market in Old Southampton

If approved, the development will form the cornerstone of the new Fruit and Vegetable Market Quarter.

Some work on the new quarter has already begun, with construction ongoing on 44 apartments in a £5m block on the nearby site of the former New York, New York nightclub and McClusky’s bar.

City council leader Simon Letts said: “We want to encourage people to live in the city centre because they will spend their time and money there and really bring the place alive.

“It’s positive, we welcome it and it’s a local company that is doing it and have put a lot of effort into these proposals.”

Shaun Adams, HRPG’s chief executive, said: “This has been a very complex process that has taken many years to bring together.

“But we have been determined to realise the success of the scheme.

“It’s one of the last urban commercial sites that still exists in Southampton city centre, many have tried to develop it before and we are now making ground in bringing the vision of the council to reality, added Mr Adams.