Candleriggs plan given green light
ADEVELOPMENT at one of the longest running city centre gap sites has been given the go ahead. Planning approval has been granted for Candleriggs Square in Merchant City on the site which included the Goldbergs department store and Granny Black’s pub.
The £300million plan is for homes, offices, hotels, restaurants and new public square on the 3.6-acre high-profile and well located city site.
Drum Property and Stamford Property Investments bought the site, bordered by Wilson Street, Hutcheson Street, Candleriggs and Trongate, last year.
The site has been derelict for two decades and was at one stage earmarked for a Selfridges store before the London store pulled out.
Approval has been granted for a ‘Planning Application in Principle’ for the entire site as well as for a detailed application for the first phase of the development.
Graeme Bone, managing director of Drum Property Group, said: “This will be a huge boost to the area and to local businesses, who are in desperate need of some good news right now.
“We can now look forward to a once-in-a-generation regeneration opportunity, transforming a very special area which has always been at the very centre of Glasgow’s commercial and social development.”
Mr Bone said it was hoped to get moving with construction as soon as they were able to get back to work
He added: “We will then provide further detail about our plans and our long-term vision to once again make Candleriggs Square what it always was – a bustling market-place full of life, vitality and interest, intrinsically linked to the rest of the city centre.”
A separate development by the Student Hotel firm for a 500-bed complex is also planned and has been included in the approval for the wider development.
Selfridges had bought the site in 2002 but plans for a much anticipated Glasgow branch did not materialise.
Part of the site has recently been used as a public space and held street events during the Commonwealth Games in 2014.
However, it has mostly been empty and unused awaiting plans for development, which has finally been given permission.
This will be a huge boost to the area