Luxury hotel for Garden Festival site
An £18 million hotel on the site of the former Glasgow Garden Festival next to the River Clyde has been given the green light.
Mosaic Architecture+ Design has secured council planning approval to build the Holiday Inn Pacific Quay hotel in a move that will create more than 50 jobs.
Situated on the south bank of the Clyde, the 150 “executive” bedroom hotel will feature seven storeys with a first floor split between conferencing and co-working space and a “Skybar” offering views across the river to the iconic Finnieston Crane and beyond.
The project represents an investment of more than £18m by developer Pacific Quay Developments. The hotel will be operated by RBH Hospitality Management.
Formerly part of the commercial dock operated by Clyde Port Authority, Pacific Quay was used for the Glasgow Garden Festival in 1988 before being transformed into a business and leisure destination. The area is now home to the headquarters of BBC Scotland and STV and sits adjacent to the Scottish Events Campus (SEC).
Neil Ha in ing, director of Mosaic, said: “This development has been carefully considered in response to the site’s immediate context within Pacific Quay and provides the area a much needed new business hotel of appropriate scale and high quality materials.
“The overall scale of the development has been care - fully balanced with the BBC headquarters to the west and S TV Glasgow to the east of the site and completes the last waterfrontage site along Pacific Quay.
“The riverside restaurant and roof top terrace have been designed to take advantage of the views of the SECC, The Hydro and the Finnieston Crane. The ground floor reception and public areas connect to the new enhanced external public realm which extends along the riverside walkway.”
The development team, which in addition to Mosaic comprises planning consultant Gary Mappin at Iceni Projects and Malcolm Pearson, director of Pacific Quay Developments, said the planning approval would kickstart the recently launched Clyde Mission to use the river to drive sustainable and inclusive growth for the city, the region and Scotland.
Led by the Scottish Government, the Clyde Mission brings together public and private sector partners to harness the opportunities and competitive advantage of the River Clyde and the surrounding assets to deliver economic, social and environmental benefits.
Pearson said :“Although situated on one of the prime remaining waterfront sites to be developed in Glasgow, this site has lain derelict for over 15 years.
“Holiday Inn Pacific Quay will constitute an outstanding addition to Glasgow’s hospitality offering to a key strategic site for Glasgow, bringing new opportunities for economic growth to the city.”
Earlier this year, Scotland’s prime cities were named among the most active areas for hotel investment in 2019, with Glasgow in first place.