Drive to ease lending for Waterfront regeneration

DUNDEE’S PLANNERS are speaking to senior bankers and financiers as they seek boardroom understanding and “prior approval” for new developments on the city’s reworked Waterfront.

Development chief Mike Galloway said his team was seeking to explain the rationale behind the city’s £1 billion regeneration plans to major lenders, in an effort to assist would-be applicants.

He hopes that ensuring banks are familiar with the project will help developers and investors when they request the debt finance required to bring major building projects to the city.

“We’re now starting to get people coming forward, wanting to have one-toone discussions about opportunities in the city,” Mr Galloway said, citing new entrants, firms expanding from Aberdeen, and those looking to set up a base ahead of anticipated movements in the renewables market.

“What we really want is to make sure the big banks, and including those people at the highest possible level, understand Dundee and have bought into Dundee in principle,” he added.

“We want the city to almost have a kind of prior approval, before they consider any proposal.”

Mr Galloway also said Dundee Airport was “absolutely vital” to the city’s future, and stressed he was “very confident” that a partnership between HIAL, Transport Scotland and Dundee City Council would help retain and grow services there.

His comments follow the publication of a Scottish Government scoping report last week, which warned that the Riverside facility could be closed unless the last remaining scheduled flight to London City can be retained.

The city development director said both the local authority and Scottish Government had “learnt the lesson” on connectivity espoused by ‘Guggenheim effect’ expert Dr Beatriz Plaza when she addressed the second Dundee Summit earlier this year.

The Bilbao-based academic told an audience of hundreds of business leaders that better transport links were crucial to the success of the city’s regeneration, with the £45 million V&A at Dundee museum at its heart.

“We cannot allow any loss of that London flight to impact on the viability of the airport,” Mr Galloway said, pledging to secure the service and look to grow additional routes.

“That needs to be in place by the time the V&A opens,” he added. “We don’t think it’s a task that’s beyond us.”

Mr Galloway was speaking after the latest of a string of sessions designed to showcase Dundee’s continued redevelopment to would-be investors in Edinburgh and Glasgow yesterday.

He said there was “standing room only” as professionals from the Central Belt quizzed him on Dundee’s plans, and has pledged to repeat the initiative next year, and the year after, to continue to drive business to the city.

“There were very enthusiastic responses to what I was explaining to them, and the progress we’re making towards realising that ambition,” Mr Galloway said, hailing the beginnings of a “really good reaction” from investment markets.

“We’re starting to get the message across that Dundee is an opportunity that people from outwith the city really need to look at much more closely.”

Attendees were also treated to the first official screening of a new 3D animation showcasing how Dundee could look in the future.

The stunning fly-through of the city’s reworked central area — which can be viewed online at www.thecourier.co.uk — showcases the completed V&A at Dundee, a new central green space featuring events including a fairground and outdoor concert, and even a new riverside urban beach.

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A still from the animation showing how the Waterfront could look.

Picture: GSR Photographic. Mike Galloway said his team aims to explain the rationale behind the Waterfront regeneration to major lenders, in order to help would-be applicants.