Plans for more homes to be created on the former Kodak tower site have been given the go ahead subject to a planning sweetener.
Dandara will be given the green light for 13 more homes as long as the firm fulfils a planning obligation under a Section 106 Agreement.
The deal includes financial contributions to primary education totalling £30,444, as well as lump sums towards the provision of childcare, libraries and other facilities.
The property developer decided to turn its back on plans for commercial space in favour of family homes after it failed to secure a business tenant.
Instead the space, currently used for temporary car parking and close to the junction of Cotterells and Station Road, will be used for 12 three-bedroom houses and a two-bedroom apartment.
The proposal also includes private gardens and 19 parking bays.
At a meeting of Dacorum Borough Council’s development control committee it was agreed to delegate the planning go-ahead, subject to the completion of the Section 106 Agreement, to the authority’s planning manager.
Dandara spent four years trying to find a tenant for a proposed four-storey 40,000 sq ft office development, which was granted planning permission in 2007.
In September last year, the firm’s planning manager Rachel Allwood put the lack of interest down to a surplus of office space in Hemel Hempstead and the current economic climate.
She said without a tenant lined up it was difficult to get financial backing for a commercial development.