Cardiff 15000 arena

Great news. Would be good to see the replacement Red Dragon Centre going up sooner rather than later. Anyone know when the current one is planned to be demolished?

Back in July it was stated there's no firm decision yet on the Red Dragon Centre.
A week ago the council told local residents that they don't have any firm plans for anything beyond the arena and hotel, at that point a developer for the arena hadn't been named and it was confirmed if the arena didn't go ahead then something else would be built.
Personally I really want the bridge to be built, but that's part of the red dragon redevelopment as well.

It would seem a bit of a waste for the council to have bought the centre only to do nothing. I hope the whole development gets built as the arena doesn't have a great connection to the Bay with the RDC in the way.

The bit that worries me is the WMC annex. Arts funding tends to be very fickle as the years of delays to the Opera House / WMC show. It's very unclear what pot they're getting funding from, or indeed what the purpose of the annex is.

It would seem a bit of a waste for the council to have bought the centre only to do nothing. I hope the whole development gets built as the arena doesn't have a great connection to the Bay with the RDC in the way.

THE RDC phase could not really get going until Cardiff Council decided on whether they needed a new County Hall (which they finally did in October) and has always obviously been fully dependent on the Arena actually happening. Now that the Arena build is starting, you'd hope there would be movement on the RDC phase. The Council know, and has stated in its own reports, that there cannot be a long uncertain period over the RDC plans as tenants are hesitant to renew leases (especially as the council can only really give shorter extensions to tenancy agreements because they don't want long tenancies that have to be bought out when redevelopment happens).

Aviva were contracted in early 2024 to start plans as the preferred developer of the RDC area. This planning was held up by the decision on County Hall, so the exclusivity deal was extended to March 2025. Weirdly I can't find any confirmation that the contract was extended again after March this year.

The bit that worries me is the WMC annex. Arts funding tends to be very fickle as the years of delays to the Opera House / WMC show. It's very unclear what pot they're getting funding from, or indeed what the purpose of the annex is.

This is seperate from the RDC redevelopment though, it's part of the Cardiff Live development (i.e. the new Council Offices) being developed by Goldbeck which is planned for the current County Hall's front car park.

I've gone on a bit of a dig around today, and found 3 different versions of the masterplan for the development. I may have missed this, but it looks like the plan that we keep seeing in news reports etc isn't the current one (BBC/Wales Online keep using the mock ups of the original verison as I assume they were the only mock-ups released)

This was the plan as originally released and had outline planning consent, and until today the plan I thought was most current:



It has the zig-zag replacement for the RDC on the right, the 4* hotel next door to the arena and the WMC academy at the bottom across from the WMC itself.

However, in a report from Rio (the Architechs behind the original plan) in October 2024 on the Council's website, they talk about the 'Council's emerging masterplan', which they share an image of:


This new design is also spotted in a Economic Impact Assessment from Savills for the Council, also in October (see how the purple buildings now match the Emerging Masterplan, not the original.



However, Rio also proposed a 3rd plan in the same report, here's the plan:



And here's the 3d mockup.



The key changes include dropping the cinema altogether (they claim it would be low rent compared to the cost of redeveloping, but still included an option to add it in if needed), erasing the WMC academy (as that's now part of the Cardiff Live development instead) protection of the land above the dock feeder (as there's a legal easment not to build on it). It also reduces the main arena sqaure, taking half of it into a park and moving rhe 4* hotel to fill the other side of the square. This plan was presented to the cabinet in october, described as:

The Council has continued to work with the developer and colleagues in the Local
Planning Authority to consider their current vision for the site to help inform their due
diligence.

Here's a link to the Rio report, page 22 and 23 give a good explanation of their plans for each building. https://cardiff.moderngov.co.uk/documents/s81540/CAB%2017%20October%202024%20-%20Atlantic%20Wharf%20Appendix%2010.pdf

Did I just miss the reporting on this?

I haven't seen anything about this so I don't think you've missed anything. I'm assuming that there aren't any actual designs in that CGI, at least I hope not as the buildings look pretty bland and they all look the same.

I haven't seen anything about this so I don't think you've missed anything. I'm assuming that there aren't any actual designs in that CGI, at least I hope not as the buildings look pretty bland and they all look the same.

No, it is very much stated that these aren't specific buiding designs, the CGI is stated to be there to show height, size and location not design. It is an alternative plan to an emerging plan that replaces a masterplan after all

A well timed article on WOL.

https://www.business-live.co.uk/commercial-property/how-cardiffs-new-16500-seater-32410146