Ambitious plans for the tallest building in Newport
Ambitious plans for a rooftop restaurant with spectacular views over the Severn Estuary, along with a four-star hotel and new office space, have been revealed for Newport’s tallest building.
Having acquired the 15-storey Chartist Tower in the city centre last month, Cardiff-based property developers Garrison Barclay Estates have given details of plans to transform the building to create a “new destination” for the city in a £10m-plus investment.
Garrison Barclay Estates development director Ian Carter confirmed they were also in talks with leading hotel operators in the hope of creating a hotel of up to 160 bedrooms across 11 floors of Chartist Tower.
The scheme at the now-vacant 1960s office building, would also provide much-needed new Grade A office space for Newport, as well as providing retail space at ground floor level.
Subject to planning consent, a transformed Chartist Tower could see:
A four-star hotel occupying 11 floors with up to 160 bedrooms.
Retail units on the ground floor, including in the former BHS store.
25,000 sq ft of Grade A office space, designed to be flooded with natural light.
A rooftop restaurant in a glass box extension that would afford views over the city and across the Bristol Channel to the English coast.
Mr Carter said: “Being in such a great location, next to the Friars Walk shopping centre, gives us the opportunity to do something really different here.
“We are looking at maximising the retail offer on the ground floor and then, moving up through the building, seeing an office development and then a four-star hotel offer on the upper floors.
“And at the top we are looking at something really exciting with the potential for a rooftop restaurant. It will have fantastic views over the city and beyond and across the Severn Estuary into England.”
Mr Carter said the hotel – which would benefit from the extra 100,000 bed night requirement that will be created when the £83m International Convention Centre Wales opens at Newport’s Celtic Manor Resort in the summer of 2019 – could accommodate between 100 and 160 bedrooms, depending on the requirements of the hotel operator.
He added: “We are talking to a number of the major four-star hotel operators and are really trying to make sure that we get the right brand, not just for Chartist Tower but one that also fits Newport.”
To help prospective hoteliers visualise how a hotel could look in the building, the developer has even mocked up a four-star bedroom on the ninth floor.
Mr Carter declined to comment on the identity of the operators, but it is understood that the Celtic Manor Resort has expressed interest.
A deal with the preferred hotel operator could be confirmed shortly.
Mr Carter said: “It is likely that we’ll have the hotel operator lined up in the next six weeks, and then hopefully a planning application will go straight in. We will then work collaboratively with Newport City Council to try and get it determined as quickly as possible and then be ready to start on-site the day we get an approval. In an ideal world, the hotel will be ready 12 months from now.”
Mr Carter said that Garrison Barclay Estates is confident that it will find occupiers for the new Grade A office space.
He said: “When we talk to people it feels like there are a lot of requirements [for new office space] in the Newport marketplace, and they are not small but bigger requirements in the range of 10,000 to 20,000 sq ft. So actually we are in prime position to pick off that demand and are able, subject to planning, to bring new office space to market at Chartist Tower relatively quickly.
“We anticipate around £16.50 a sq ft for the office space, but with the right space we believe Newport has the potential to realise £18.50.
He said the hotel would include a gym, sauna and steam room, adding: “And if the hotel operator wanted such a facility, it could also provide a full spa.”
On the rooftop restaurant, Mr Carter said that discussions with potential operators would follow naturally after a deal on the hotel.
“It’s a bit premature as, until we have a hotel operator, we cannot work on that, as certain hotel operators run their own restaurants, while others look to bring in a restaurateur to run it for them. But once we lock down a hotel operator we can start looking at that. But we anticipate a lot of interest in having a restaurant on the top of the tallest building in Newport.”
He said it is envisaged that the restaurant would provide 150-170 covers.
Mr Carter said the redevelopment of Chartist Tower would be important for the city, which he believes has huge economic potential with its close proximity to both Bristol and Cardiff.
“You cannot get a better-placed position next to Friars Walk. So this is an exciting regeneration scheme that will have the maximum impact on Newport and its city centre.”
He added: “We want to create something where it has a knock-on effect of creating footfall so that shops and retailers around [Chartist Tower] benefit too.
“So we want this to become a destination and not just a building.”