CardiffWalesMap

I've heard, along the grapevine, Rightarces have bought the Brains Brewery site!? Anyone heard this??

Intresting if they have and what scheme they propose? Would have thought many of the building on the site are listed, especially the chimney!

They seem to have taken over that area with ambition to redevelop the whole central district of Cardiff!! Hats off to them!!

Magicman wrote:I've heard, along the grapevine, Rightarces have bought the Brains Brewery site!? Anyone heard this??

Intresting if they have and what scheme they propose? Would have thought many of the building on the site are listed, especially the chimney!

They seem to have taken over that area with ambition to redevelop the whole central district of Cardiff!! Hats off to them!!

Hi Magicman (and welcome! by the way) That's very interesting, they surely have ambitious plans for the site! is this a potential convention centre? (if Cardiff RFC don't get in first) Is this for a large HMRC office to challenge John Street proposal? Like you I wonder if any reading this have more knowledge on this exciting development and want to channel our thoughts in the right direction!!

Like you I have also heard this through the grapevine that they are looking to relocate the Brains brewery to a different location - possibly an industrial estate type location? The Brains site would then be developed, but for what I do not know.

This might be tied in with Moxy hotels purchasing the BMW dealership next door -

http://www.walesonline.co.uk/business/b ... f-11760810

There are also plans for a sort of 'urban quarter' for the area around Trade Street. If that gets off the ground, the more interesting older buildings on the Brewery site are preserved and the new builds are sympathetic this could be quite an interesting area (as long as you ignore the AA/Lloyds buildings - which incidentally were also built by Rightacres, presumably before they decided to engage architects).

I suspect that it will be many years before anything actually happens. Rightacres have their hands full with Central Square for the forseeable future and Brains will have to build a new facility before moving. Unless they've done a deal to build a convention centre/arena which was something mooted previously.

I've spoken to somebody high up in national statistics office in Newport, they believe that they are possibly moving to Cardiff as part of the government hub.
Now I don't know the sq footage of there current building but I know it's a massive building and they need more room as it is.

There's a lot of space down there. If it is developed I only hope someone makes use of the embankment.

People often comment on the fact that Cardiff doesn't have a purpose built conference centre - is the CIA so bad? - but hotels do thse sorts of things up to a point. Remember that they always used to hold the party conferences in seaside towns like Brighton.

Good news on Walesonline tonight.

Oh good. More space for student flats.

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.
But Brains I'm afraid is run as a property portfolio now, where you visit some Brains Pubs and you cant get a pint of Brain Beer

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).