Certainly has. I did some work for the Brighton Centre about seven years ago and the management there were fully aware that there were plans afoot to scrap the Centre.
At the time, there was still the possibility of knocking the Centre down and rebuilding it in its present spot but there also...
Picked it up from NSC? Planning applications are meat and drink to local newspapers, they'd have been all over this.
I'm bemused by this idea that hotels are non-viable: aren't we often being told there's a shortage of hotel rooms in Brighton?