Zach wrote:Very sad indeed, another firm cashing in on their land bank.
What makes cities is an eclectic mix of developments, from parks, retail, housing, castles, and breweries!!
Lets knock em all down and build gated leisures villages, retail and student flats. That way Cardiff will be unique and the tourists will flood in to admire our range of high rise student complexes
Dublin would be the closest example where a city centre brewery has become great addition to the city without it abandoning the life of the city to move to an anonymous trading estate with motorway access.
I think thats a little unfair in regards to this development: they plan to keep the main brewery building and tower, just demolishing all the ugly (and relatively modern) sheds. The focus on leisure is, I think a hint that they are looking to build the convention centre / arena on the site. Now I suppose all the associated bars, restaurants, retail and other leisure activities could be 'gated' - a bit like the stuff inside the O2. But there's nothing to suggest thats the plan (of course some would be inside the arena building). Indeed, I'd suspect the plan would be to put this stuff on the lower floors of retained and other new buildings on the site. The criticism levelled would be a fairer assessment of somewhere like RedDragon Centre, but thats very much a product of the mid 1990s.
I think we should also be wary about comparing Brains Brewery with the Guiness Brewery. Guiness is a world-wide phenomenon, which helps its "brewery" become a tourist attraction. Its made it worth investing millions of pounds in the offsite Guiness Storehouse - which is actually the attraction that everyone comes to see when they do the 'brewery tour' (it tells the story of Guiness as a company, the brewing process, transport and marketing etc... plus flogs a load of Guiness in its bars). The Brewery itself is a big hulking complex on the Liffey - probably two to three times the 16 acres talked about here. Could they have sold up? Perhaps, but its not as central as the Brains Brewery is and development in Dublin has been focused a lot on the riverside to the East of the centre. Now thats pretty much filled up maybe they'll revisit it? Especially as its also next to one of the main stations in the city (albeit not the most central station).