Bank of Bermuda has lobbed off one of the floors from its previously planned seven-storey building for the former Trimingham property on Front Street in its latest bid for planning approval.

The new scheme will mean the demolition of the present department store building and its rebuilding with a new Front Street frontage that is "traditional in character and appearance so that it compliments the historic area on Front Street," according to the proposal now before the Development Applications Board.

And the bank is seeking some leeway from the DAB to allow the building to have most of the floor heights one foot higher than normally allowed. The overall impact is a building that is four feet higher than the six-storey building current City of Hamilton regulations would permit.

The bank has scaled back the overall number of floors after a number of refusals for a seven-storey office and retail development at a site regarded as sensitive with regard to building height and overall appearance.

Environment Minister Neletha Butterfield turned down an appeal by the Bank of the DAB rejection earlier this summer.

In the new plan the higher storeys are set further back from street level than in previous proposals. From Reid Street it will appear as a five-storey building and from Front Street as six storeys, although only three of the storeys are at street level with the remainder set back to varying degrees.

The fifth floor eaves on Reid Street to ground level is 88ft tall, with mechanical equipment on the roof reaching a maximum height of 115ft.

The saga of the bank's attempts to build at the Trimingham property at 39, 41 and 43 Front Street stretches back to last October when an ultra-modern seven-storey design was put forward. That plan also attracted 23 objectors who felt it did not fit in with the character of Front Street.

A revised scheme with the same number of storeys, proposed last December, was also opposed by technical officers, as was a third attempt for a seven-storey building with the set back "terraced" appearance to make it less imposing on Front Street.

The building will include bank offices, a Bank of Bermuda retail outlet and two shops ? one on Reid Street and one on Front Street.

Explaining the reasons why it was seeking the board's discretion to allow most of the floors to have 13-foot high ceilings rather than the normal 12-foot height, an application letter from architects Cooper and Gardner states this will provide enough room for "modern and energy efficient buildings" and also matches the global standard for modern buildings, provides more comfortable conditions for employees and is also in line with floor height exceptions previously allowed in Bermuda, such as at AIG and XL.