‘Milestone development’ Mayor and investor on Temple Island vision
BRISTOL Mayor Marvin Rees has spoken indepth about the plans to transform Temple Island.
Legal & General (L&G) has agreed to invest £350million to redevelop a disused plot near Temple Meads station, land once lined up to accommodate Bristol Arena.
A public consultation will launch in the next couple of months, but the scheme is set to include 550 new homes – 220 designated affordable – a 345-room hotel, two “major” office blocks and a large conference centre.
In interviews with the Post, Mr Rees and L&G’s Pete Gladwell spoke about the timescales for the development, what it might look like and why they believe Bristol office space will stay in demand.
The Mayor called it “one of the most exciting regeneration opportunities in the UK”, as part of the Temple Quarter Enterprise Zone which will also see a new £300million University of Bristol campus.
Here is what the Mayor and L&G had to say on the key issues for Temple Island:
How much is still to be decided?
Though artists’ impressions of what the scheme could look like have been released previously, Mr Gladwell was keen to make clear the designs are yet to be decided on.
“The entire aim of the first phase of consultation will be to say to local people, ‘What would you like from this place?’” said Mr Gladwell, L&G’s 40-year-old social impact and investment director.
“Should [the homes] be one huge tower stretching up into the sky? We’ve got the idea of a square. Do people like the idea of a square that brings life to the place in the middle? Would they prefer a warren of streets instead?
“It’s not like we’ll be rowing back on the target for homes, but a lot of this will be in terms of the design. What’s the right mix on the ground floor [of the two office blocks]?
“I have got a strong feeling that people locally will want there to be some really good local shops on the ground floor so that’s the ambition we’re going into this with.”
Mr Rees agreed the public consultation will be over the scheme’s design. He added Bristol City Council will “certainly be keeping our eyes and ears open to what’s happening in the world around us”.
He said: “That’s how we behave responsibly with public money. We’ll be looking at housing markets, we’ll be looking at office markets. But this is the plan. It’s a strong plan, and L&G are a very experienced investor.”
Who owns the land?
The land is owned by Bristol City Council, but will be purchased by L&G after planning permission is granted, as part of the £350million deal.
Though the amount it will be sold for is not yet known, Mr Gladwell said he expects most of the £350million to be spent on delivering the buildings rather than buying the land.
He added: “We will take this land through the planning process. We will run all the consultations, and then the land transfers to us.
“Interestingly that’s something we agreed to here that none of our other partnerships with local authorities have, so that’s something where Bristol has pushed us for a better deal than the likes of Newcastle have secured.
“On this one, they’ve got us to do all that initial work and consultation and work with Zaha-Hadid Architects on the whole design.”
What are the numbers behind the deal?
Explaining why the cost of purchase for the land is not yet known, Mr Gladwell said: “The council and taxpayer locally need to ensure they get best value for the land. They won’t know what best value is until it’s gone through the planning process.”
The council will spent £32million
of public money to prepare the land for development, addressing contamination issues, before transferring the site to L&G.
Mr Rees said he has full confidence that the cost to the council will not rise beyond £32million.
He said: “We get, over 25 years, about £850million of gross value added (GVA). The arena would have been about £300million.
“It will lead to about three times the number of jobs and almost twice the council tax and business rates for the city every year.”
What is the timescale?
Mr Rees revealed phase one, construction of the homes and offices, is expected to start in 2023.
The homes and offices are set to be complete by the end of 2024. The timescale of phase two – the hotel and conference centre – is not yet known.
What kind of homes will be built?
Mr Gladwell said the 220 affordable homes – 40 per cent of the total – will be “a mix of provision”.
He added: “All of the affordable homes will be below market, all of those ‘making a loss,’ if you want to phrase it that way. ‘Subsidises’ is the other way of looking at it.”
The provision is expected to include homes for social rent; shared ownership with a housing association or registered provider; keyworker accommodation; and other homes for rent below market levels.
Mr Rees says the council wants to see a place for “mixed communities” to live. “We’ve talked about that in terms of tenure, but also age,” he said. “We want intergenerational housing, singles, families – that’s how you build communities.
“What we cannot miss is how important building the right homes in the right places is to minimising the price the planet pays for meeting our population’s needs.
“It’s about building the homes we’re going to need, centrally and more densely, within active travel distance of work, retail and entertainment – building those 15-minute communities is critical.”
What can we expect from the hotel?
Mr Gladwell was quick to point out the details of the hotel are up for discussion in the consultation, but he did give an insight into L&G’s current thoughts.
“It’s fair to say we are being encouraged to be ambitious on the scale of it, the quality and the star rating, but it’s really important for me that whatever it is serves the local community as well,” he said.
“I don’t want the development to have areas that are exclusive to residents, where no one else can go. For me the vision [for the hotel] is upmarket but also inclusive.”
Will there still be demand for office space?
The plans refer to two “major Grade A” office buildings. The rise of home working amid the pandemic has prompted a lower demand for office space in some areas, but the Mayor and L&G are confident of the market in Bristol.
Mr Gladwell said: “There’s still very deep embedded demand for offices in Bristol.
“You’ve got lots of positive media, tech, all of that intellectual property that comes out of the university. You’ve got a city full of talent and entrepreneurs, but it needs that really major investment to enable that entrepreneurial talent to create jobs and economic growth that benefits the city and region.”
Mr Rees added: “In Bristol we’ve had some fantastic momentum. We have a great deal of profile and reputation.
“Our proximity to London is obviously helpful, we’ve got a large number of people moving from London to Bristol, we are the new home of Channel 4. We got a fantastic arena going up on the edge of the city [in Filton].
“We are recognised as a leading city on global sustainable development goals. For investors that’s incredibly attractive.”
The Mayor pointed to the plan to connect the development to the local heat network, which uses lowcarbon heat sources including waste from the city’s sewers.
“The City Leap is a £1billion package of investment in [low-carbon] energy for Bristol,” he added. “All this brings people’s attention.”
What about the conference centre?
The proposals refer to a “large capacity conference centre and exhibition space”, which the Mayor believes would have the potential to outstrip any facilities seen in Bristol before.
He said: “We will put it right next to the University of Bristol. That’s a fantastic location.
“Academics at the university and the university leadership itself have said if we had a world class conference centre we could be bringing conferences from all over the world to Bristol.”
The Mayor says the L&G deal and the new campus are milestones for Bristol, alongside Network Rail’s work to expand and refurbish Bristol Temple Meads train station due for completion in 2023.
He said: “Those schemes together will form that gateway, that catalyst for the regeneration of the wider Temple Quarter.
“Across Temple Quarter as a whole, we’re talking about 10,000 homes along with workspace as well. That’s very exciting”
Mr Gladwell said L&G will take inspiration from the success of other regeneration projects outside train stations, such as Kings Cross in London, and Cardiff.
He said: “The whole dynamic of this, with the university campus next door and the Temple Quarter vision, is something even Kings Cross, for all its positives, doesn’t have – that real ability to be an economic driver and create jobs growth and new business.”