MAJOR PLANS FOR SWANSEA
ADEVELOPER or investor is being sought to build offices, flats, shops, restaurants and leisure facilities on several councilowned sites in Swansea as part of the city’s £1bn regeneration plans.
Council leader Rob Stewart said he was confident that demand prior to the coronavirus pandemic had not gone away and that people will want to live, work and spend leisure time in the city.
The authority is formally inviting developers and investors to tender for the proposed regeneration, with a view to selecting a preferred partner next summer.
Mr Stewart said he wanted one developer, or a consortium, to “share the risk and the rewards” rather than several companies.
He said: “Investors around the world are looking for new opportunities – and Swansea can provide them.”
And he believed the ongoing work to create a new indoor arena, coastal park, multi-storey car park, flats and commercial space either side of Oystermouth Road – known as Swansea Central phase one – demonstrated to potential investors that solid progress was being made, despite the uncertain economic situation.
Mr Stewart said: “People returning to the city will have seen a big change.”
The development sites the council has in mind are:
■ Swansea Central phase two, which is roughly from St Mary’s Church down to Oystermouth Road, to become a public sector hub, plus retail and leisure space, and housing;
■ an office-led scheme at the Oxford Street car park opposite the Grand Theatre;
■ the Civic Centre seafront site for a residential-led mixed-use development;
■ Hafod Copperworks to become a leisure destination, including a whisky distillery and Kilvey Hill gondola ride;
■ a residential-led scheme at the former St Thomas railway station, by the River Tawe; land off East Burrows Road by the SA1 Sail Bridge to become housing with other potential uses; and
■ the Marina site behind the former observatory, to be developed for residential and commercial uses.
Mr Stewart said he believed companies would still want modern, flexible office space despite the likelihood of more home-working post-Covid 19.
The council is pushing on with such an office project at the former Oceana site in The Kingsway, although no construction has started as yet.
The council leader said that elements of the design had been amended in the light of Covid-19, with wider stairwells, self-flushing toilets and lifts without buttons now incorporated.
The council is borrowing a large chunk of the £135m Swansea Central phase one project, which is being delivered with a development partner.
Mr Stewart described this as a “catalyst investment”, but did not rule out borrowing more to help regenerate some of the new sites identified.
But he said money would only be borrowed on the basis that it yielded a return to the authority.
The principle of city-centre regeneration has cross-party support in Swansea, but opposition groups are keeping a close eye on the increased borrowing and how much money the new assets can generate for the council.
The 3,500-capacity arena is due to open in phases from next summer, with an operator already signed up.
No-one knows whether coronavirus restrictions will be part of our lives at that point, but Cllr Stewart is hopeful that the timing will be right.