Cheltenham Borough Council's Municipal Offices is on the market and an exclusive tour gives a real picture of the sheer scale of the building.

This is the third and final part of Punchline-Gloucester.com editor Mark Owen's tour around this incredible building. Watch part 1 here and part 2 here. 

Cheltenham Borough Council now occupies no more than 25% of the iconic 60,000 sq ft building on the Promenade.

Cllr Rowena Hay, leader of the council, and Paul Jones, executive director of finance, assets and regeneration, showed Mark Owen around the entirely empty second and third floors of the Municipal Offices.

Following the second-floor corridor along the north wing, which is replicated on the south wing, there are a huge number of empty offices. On the third floor, the offices are smaller and more rundown, giving a real picture of the scale of the building and the huge amount of space currently being wasted.

The running costs of a near-empty building mean it is no longer viable for the council. But the council is also keen to see it brought back to life in a sympathetic way.

Cllr Rowena Hay said: "We've talked about it for a great many years. It's been to council, it's been approved for sale and what we need now is the development brief. Then we can actually go out to market it and bring this building back to life.

"It could be a hotel, it could be residential or mixed office use. I want the market to tell us what is possible.

"The thing that matters most to me is that, whoever has this and does whatever they are going to do with it, that it's very much about place making and Cheltenham at its heart.

"This isn't just somebody coming in and saying 'we like that building, we're going to do what we want with it'. They need to think about Cheltenham as a whole, because we are the custodians of this building."

Paul Jones said: "It needs life putting back into it. I think anything that regenerates footfall for what is already a top performing town, whether that be hotel, whether it be residential, whether it be mixed office use, we're very much mindful that the market will decide what's right for this building."

Businesses interested in finding out more about the sale of the historic Municipal Offices should contact Abi Marshall, development manager, at Cheltenham Borough Council.