TWO brothers want to bulldoze an “eyesore” building in Blackburn and transform the site into £5 million restaurant and conference centre.

The former Larkhill Health Centre has been empty for several years as the NHS struggled to offload the building. But it has been bought by businessmen Sajed and Majed Hussain.

MORE TOP STORIES:

Sajed, who runs Architectural Fibreglass Mouldings in Accrington, said he and his brother want to create a conference and training centre, as well as a restaurant, desert parlour and coffee shop, on the Mount Pleasant site.

He said: “This would be a new project for us but we think it is an ideal location for it and there is a gap in the market.

“We are not going to do anything on the cheap and will look to invest about £5 million in the whole project. It could create about 50 jobs for the local economy.

“It is all subject to planning permission. We will be arranging a meeting with the council to see how they can work with us.

“There is a lot of land around the building which is not suited to development in its current form. So we will want to see if the council will let us adopt that land.”

The brothers also run housing and packaging companies but have bought the property through Sajed Investments Ltd.

They were reluctant to reveal how much they paid for the property, which sits above the Eanam roundabout. But Allsop auction house said it fetched £510,000 when it went under the hammer in October.

Cllr Suleman Khonat (Shear Brow) said: “It is always sad to see a public building go. But with the new health centre at Barbara Castle Way, I do not think we can complain.

“Since the building closed it has become an eyesore and suffered quite a bit of damage. It will be nice to see something done with it but we will have to wait and see about the plans. I welcome any type of development.”

Mansour Geloo, director of the nearby Geloo Brothers pharmacy, said: “That building has been an eyesore so I am sure whatever they come up with is going to be an improvement on what is there now.”

Larkhill Health Centre closed in 2011 when Blackburn’s £21 million Barbara Castle Way Health Centre opened its doors. That has 121 clinical rooms.