Offices to replace Queen Street car park after council cut-price U-turn
PLANS have been revealed which could see the former Queen Street station car park converted into a large office development.
The move follows issues with the original proposal to build a new car park and retail units on the North Hanover Street site.
Glasgow City Council say the new scheme, while smaller in level of investment, falling from £80m to £45-50m, is expected to create the same economic impact for the city. Council leader Susan Aitken said: “Our city centre is hugely important to the economic, cultural and social life of Glasgow and any new development brings with it the opportunity to make the centre a more desirable place to visit and in which to live and work.
“The revised business case for this project promises to enhance public spaces, support one of our major transport hubs and deliver more much-needed Grade A office space in the heart of the city.”
Councillors approved preparation of an amended business case, re-configuring the Tax Incremental Finance (TIF) scheme, yesterday.
The TIF model is a way of funding enabling infrastructure necessary to kick-start new development. It allows local authorities to capture additional non domestic rates (NDR) revenue.
In Glasgow, the original TIF proposal was to redevelop Buchanan Galleries, owned by Land Securities.
Part of the project would have taken place on land beside Queen Street station, owned by Network Rail.
However, no agreement could be reached on how the scheme could be delivered alongside the Edinburgh-Glasgow Improvement Programme (EGIP), which involves the redevelopment of Queen Street Station.
Network Rail determined the site “could be developed as a prime office location”.