A PROMINENT Weymouth seafront building is to gain a new lease of life.

The beach office building, formerly the home of the Tourist Information Centre before it was controversially moved to the Pavilion two years ago, is to go on the market this summer.

Weymouth and Portland Borough Council wants someone to transform the site – the headquarters of seafront operations which dates from the early 1980s – as a ‘new and exciting’ facility.

It came after complaints the building should be refurbished in line with seafront improvements.

The retail unit, formerly the TIC and now the London 2012 shop, is let until October – but the Beach Cafe on the other side of the complex which has been run by Alison Cocks for more than 25 years is let until 2016.

Because it will break the lease early, the council will have to pay £22,000 compensation to Mrs Cocks. She said she would be sad to leave but is glad to be trading during the Olympic summer.

“The building is fine. It doesn’t need bulldozing; it just needs to be renovated,” Mrs Cocks said.

She added: “This hasn’t come as a surprise to me because I’ve known the council has wanted to do something with the building for a while.”

The proposal to terminate the lease of the beach office building and market it was backed by the borough council’s management committee. There are a number of options as to what can be done with the complex but councillors learned any new building would have to include most of the existing facilities including toilets.

Council finance and assets spokesman Peter Chapman said: “We want to use the beach control office as a new and exciting facility for Weymouth seafront. The council has decided to end the lease on the current beach control building and put it on the open market through a competitive tender process to bring out the best ideas.

“This is the opportunity for someone with a long leasehold interest to gain planning permission and provide a replacement building on the site.

“We are looking to put the building on the market during summer.

“New premises for the beach control office will be provided along the seafront.”

Councillor Chapman said the building’s tenants can trade until October. Management committee members were faced with two options in relation to the building – do nothing until 2016 or act now.

Coun Peter Farrell told the committee: “The building isn’t tatty but it’s not good. It’s not iconic.

“You have a duty to make the best use of the building, to leave it for four years is not the way to go.

“Everything else has been smartened up for the Olympics.”