Europa House, which famously first opened in 1975 with ‘futuristic’ gold reflective cladding but has long stood vacant and dilapidated, is being renamed Monocle and turned into Grade A office space for up to 600 workers that is due to open in 2025.

Hull City Council and Hull & East Yorkshire Local Enterprise Partnership have now agreed to make a £1.5m contribution towards the £6.5m project which is being prepared by Venture Business Space, part of Allenby Commercial.

The money has come from the council’s allocation of government Levelling Up Funding and HEY LEP’s Growing Places Fund, with both providing £750,000.

James Newman OBE, HEY LEP chair, said: “This project will be an important addition to ensuring that Hull city centre continues to develop and will attract new businesses to the city.

“I am delighted that the HEY LEP has been able to support Venture Business Space and I look forward to seeing the development completed and the new space occupied.”

Cllr Paul Drake-Davis, the council’s portfolio holder for regeneration, said: “The former Europa House building is a prominent and key property in the city centre which has stood dilapidated for many years.

“This is another important step forward in the regeneration of Hull city centre, once again supported by Levelling Up Funding.

“It is yet another example of Hull going against the national trend of seeing continued economic investment into the city centre and bringing empty buildings back into use.”

The project will provide commercial space at ground level and office accommodation on the five upper floors.

Work is expected to start soon and Allenby Commercial hopes the first two floors should be ready for occupation by the end of March 2025. Full completion is scheduled for the end of November 2025.

Andrew Allenby, managing director of Allenby Commercial, said: “We bought the building before the pandemic and have had to face up to the changing landscape in commercial property and to the imperative of creating jobs in Hull city centre.

“We have always worked to the highest standards but now the bar is even higher. To buck the trend of remote working and to attract people into the buildings you need to offer excellent facilities.

“Monocle is another example of our strategy of renovating older buildings which have profile and character and using them to bring new jobs to Hull.”

Monocle: Transformation of Hull's gold-cladded Europa House office building gets £1.5m boost