Central Square

This makes very interesting reading, some student could use it as a thesis of how not to plan a city centre transport hub.

http://cardiff.moderngov.co.uk/documents/s17066/Cabinet%2027%20July%202017%20Bus%20station.pdf

Highlights:

The developer has incurred further costs
relating to design, planning and site preparation at risk and the Council is
now required to settle these costs

The developer gets cold feet and the Council picks up the tab?

In addition to the specific costs outlined above, the Wood St NCP Car
Park was also the subject of existing parking leases that needed to be
resolved in order to enable demolition of the building. This has meant that
the development proposal for the new Interchange building also needs to
incorporate 225 car parking spaces.

The financial implications of incorporating the car park in the development
are highlighted in the report in terms of reducing the commercial value
from the site and the additional expenditure from the engineering solution
required to incorporate the car park on the first floor

Knock down a car park, only to have to rebuild it into the new building one floor up??

Council’s aspirations for the building has
effectively created constraints on the developer that have prevented the
pursuit of high yielding opportunities involving student accommodation and
budget hotels. In order to expedite the development it is recommended
that Cabinet reverts to the original approach and allows the developer to
pursue market driven opportunities.

You can have planning for 100 Brothels, we just want this nightmare to end.

I wonder if there is some brinkmanship/gaming on the part of Rightacres here? They've been having a very successful time of it at Central Square: letting 1 Capital Square soon after completion; letting No. 2 pretty much before construction started; securing the BBC as a tenant prior to construction; probably securing HMRC for the single biggest office letting in Cardiff for decades (a bit bigger than Admira I think). Given the strength of the location, I'd be surprised if they really couldn't let another 100k of office space at decent rents (although they might need to accept smaller occupiers as a lot of the big requirements have been satisfied recently). And other student resi occupiers have actually been signalling that they think that we are moving more rapidly to saturation of the student market than expected: isn't one trying to get permission to let rooms as long-stay accomodation for people visiting Cardiff for 1-3 months?

It wouldn't surprise me if this isn't Rightacres trying to squeeze more cash off the council, get more flexibility in terms of what they deliver (which could still be resi and offices), and get more time to do things (perhaps their liquidity is a bit of an issue being involved in so many different buildings in one go - and the HMRC one probably looks jucier).

I wonder if there is some brinkmanship/gaming on the part of Rightacres here? They've been having a very successful time of it at Central Square: letting 1 Capital Square soon after completion; letting No. 2 pretty much before construction started; securing the BBC as a tenant prior to construction; probably securing HMRC for the single biggest office letting in Cardiff for decades (a bit bigger than Admira I think). Given the strength of the location, I'd be surprised if they really couldn't let another 100k of office space at decent rents (although they might need to accept smaller occupiers as a lot of the big requirements have been satisfied recently). And other student resi occupiers have actually been signalling that they think that we are moving more rapidly to saturation of the student market than expected: isn't one trying to get permission to let rooms as long-stay accomodation for people visiting Cardiff for 1-3 months?

It wouldn't surprise me if this isn't Rightacres trying to squeeze more cash off the council, get more flexibility in terms of what they deliver (which could still be resi and offices), and get more time to do things (perhaps their liquidity is a bit of an issue being involved in so many different buildings in one go - and the HMRC one probably looks jucier).

This

I wonder if there is some brinkmanship/gaming on the part of Rightacres here? They've been having a very successful time of it at Central Square: letting 1 Capital Square soon after completion; letting No. 2 pretty much before construction started; securing the BBC as a tenant prior to construction; probably securing HMRC for the single biggest office letting in Cardiff for decades (a bit bigger than Admira I think). Given the strength of the location, I'd be surprised if they really couldn't let another 100k of office space at decent rents (although they might need to accept smaller occupiers as a lot of the big requirements have been satisfied recently). And other student resi occupiers have actually been signalling that they think that we are moving more rapidly to saturation of the student market than expected: isn't one trying to get permission to let rooms as long-stay accomodation for people visiting Cardiff for 1-3 months?

It wouldn't surprise me if this isn't Rightacres trying to squeeze more cash off the council, get more flexibility in terms of what they deliver (which could still be resi and offices), and get more time to do things (perhaps their liquidity is a bit of an issue being involved in so many different buildings in one go - and the HMRC one probably looks jucier).

This

Yup. They are just buying more time, and in the process laying the blame at the former council leadership, which the current Labour group running the council are going to love.

I wonder if there is some brinkmanship/gaming on the part of Rightacres here? They've been having a very successful time of it at Central Square: letting 1 Capital Square soon after completion; letting No. 2 pretty much before construction started; securing the BBC as a tenant prior to construction; probably securing HMRC for the single biggest office letting in Cardiff for decades (a bit bigger than Admira I think). Given the strength of the location, I'd be surprised if they really couldn't let another 100k of office space at decent rents (although they might need to accept smaller occupiers as a lot of the big requirements have been satisfied recently). And other student resi occupiers have actually been signalling that they think that we are moving more rapidly to saturation of the student market than expected: isn't one trying to get permission to let rooms as long-stay accomodation for people visiting Cardiff for 1-3 months?

It wouldn't surprise me if this isn't Rightacres trying to squeeze more cash off the council, get more flexibility in terms of what they deliver (which could still be resi and offices), and get more time to do things (perhaps their liquidity is a bit of an issue being involved in so many different buildings in one go - and the HMRC one probably looks jucier).

This

Yup. They are just buying more time, and in the process laying the blame at the former council leadership, which the current Labour group running the council are going to love.

I don't think that laying the blame on the Bale/Patel/Morgan faction is politically expedient for Labour. You may be correct that the Goodway faction will be using this farce to twist the dagger but if there is no bus station by the time of the next local elections (2022) then Labour will suffer.

Yours, Rhodri's and Randi's blithe optimism and surmising seems to be a case of grasping at straws. The bottom line is that unless there is a big office pre-let then the bus station won't be built. It doesn't take a genius to have worked out (in 2014/15) that there was a massive supply of office space coming onto the market in Cardiff a few years down the line. Whoever decided to initially plan for "luxury apartments" clearly didn't realise that there wouldn't be much demand for said flats above a bus station with no allocated car parking spaces.

The huge oversupply of student residences combined with a potential oversupply of Grade A office space surely means that, barring some kind of miracle, Cardiff won't be getting a bus station for quite some time - if ever. I predicted this to almost universal ridicule - on this very thread - over two years ago.

So once Plas Dwr, Churchlands etc etc ad nauseam are built, with buses/BRT ferrying the new Cardiffians into their jobs in shiny new offices, where will the buses stop and start? Many more buses will be needed as the new residents won't be able to drive or get the train from their new homes. Maybe they can walk or cycle.

This, along with the LDP, is a terrible indictment of the greed, corruption, short-sightedness and bloody-mindedness of the enemies of our city who forced these half-baked schemes through.

Not having a central bus station is a disgrace.
Yesterday while outside the main train station an elderly woman with a suit case wanted to know how to get to Churchhill way (presumably to get a onward connecting bus) This was also in the pouring rain, I said the easiest option would be to get a taxi or a train to Queen St.
The National Express buses from London and Swansea arrive in the Park a good mile from either train station and the rest of the scattered transport hub, great if you need the exercise and are fit and well.
Is there a free shuttle bus to connect everything?
Perhaps get the capitol city's public transport sorted before embarking on the new Metro

Maybe when the BBC move in they could do a programme on Cardiff's lost Bus Station and where the land went

Maybe someone should knock up a treatment for a new BBC sitcom, a Kafka-esque comedy where someone gets a job as a BBC scriptwriter but can't get to work due to gridlock and the lack of a bus station.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/writersroom/send-a-script

The subject of the bus station for me is not an intellectual exercise or one of blaming whoever. For me it means fewer journeys into Cardiff, because of mobility problems. In the past, I could catch a bus directly from Penarth to The Hayes or Churchill Way or via the bus station to other parts of Cardiff. Now I'm restricted to trips to Canton for shopping. Never mind, there's always on-line shopping, thankfully.

Plans have been submitted for the HMRC office,
http://planning.cardiff.gov.uk/online-a ... APR_120765

Plans have been submitted for the HMRC office,
http://planning.cardiff.gov.uk/online-a ... APR_120765

Unable to open the documents as of yet?