How Cardiff’s Central Square is changing the landscape of the capital

THE area outside Cardiff Central railway station has rapidly changed during the past few years.

While One Central Square has had tenants for a couple of years, becoming fully let in early 2017, its neighbour Two Central Square is getting ready to welcome its occupants before the end of the year.

The BBC got the keys for its new headquarters back in April. The £100m building will include one million square feet of office, residential and retail space.

The new HMRC headquarters on the site of the old Western Mail & Echo building is taking shape, while the site for the new bus exchange has been cleared and work is under way.

Here is the latest on each of the projects in the Central Square scheme:

Two Central Square Construction work was topped out in the summer of 2017 and the building is one floor taller than the One Central Square office scheme.

The building has already been fully let to law firm Hugh James and Cardiff University’s School of Journalism, Media and Cultural Studies (Jomec).

Hugh James has signed up to about 100,000sq ft in the building, with the school taking the remainder of the office space.

Hugh James’ official move-in date will be October 22. Jomec will be moving into the building in mid-September, with the academics settling in a week before the students enrol on September 24.

BBC Headquarters The Foster & Partners-designed building is split over five storeys and totals 180,000sq ft. The BBC Cymru Wales HQ will see 1,200 of the public service broadcasters’ staff beginning a phased move late next year.

Some ground floor space in the building, which will remain under the ownership of Rightacres, has been set aside for retail units. Tesco has made an application for one of the sites, while Greggs, Boots and Pret a Manger are understood to have been lined up to occupy the space.

The BBC has signed up to a 20-year lease for the building with its owner Legal & General at an initial cost of about £4m a year with a rent review, linked to the retail price index measure of inflation, every five years.

As is common with property deals of this scale, the public service broadcaster will have an initial rent-free period.

A BBC Wales spokesman said: “Work on BBC Wales’ new broadcast centre in Central Square is progressing well. The building work has now come to an end and we are currently in the fit-out stage, which includes installing the cutting edge broadcast technology that will make Central Square one of the most advanced broadcast centres in the UK.

“Staff will begin the move to the new building in the autumn of 2019 and it will be fully operational in 2020.”

The Interchange Cardiff’s long-awaited new bus station will also provide office space and 300 private residential apartments. There will be 14 bus stands on the concourse, as well as a cycle hub for 144 bikes. There are six retail units planned for the ground floor.

Above the bus station, there will be six storeys of office space and 301 private residential apartments, which will include 24 three-bedroom apartments, 100 two-bedroom apartments, 169 onebedroom apartments and eight studio apartments.

The private residential apartment ele-