General Developments

All they need to do is improve the pedestrian realm and maybe give out grants to improve the look of buildings to improve the area, but then this will probably push up prices and make the area untenable for these types of business.

I really hate this false marketing crap. It's already a kind of food district and it doesn't need a stupid name.

People from outside of the city already visit these places, tourists I'm sure will ask about restaurants and might even be pointed in that direction. Some will get in a taxi, some don't need to because there's loads of choice in the city centre. How do these people know if they do or don't ? Even us Valley yobs travel outside of our caves to eat there, but sometimes we don't because...shock horror...we have restaurants and cafes outside of Cardiff as well.

Kyle, I think you're underestimating the role that marketing has on people's behaviour. If you market something as "Cardiff's Global Food Mile" or whatever, it will have an effect. It will get in guidebooks. It will get on Tripadvisor as "an attraction". There will be a leaflet in the Tourist Information Centre, and a website - which could be highly ranked if done well. So when people search "eating out Cardiff" or "restaurants Cardiff" or "Asian food Cardiff" this comes up. Not saying it will have a massive effect. But it would have some effect, and an effect that grows over time if the restaurants are good and get good reviews from customers. As it is if you search for these things, or ask the typical hotel staff, you'll probably just get directed to places in the centre or Mermaid Quay 95%+ of the time.

What all this needs is a bit of money - which I think should come mainly from the occupiers on the street(s) in question. Could it be a BID? A penny or two on rates to fund the website and leaflets, for a bit of cleaning up of the area, a few road and information signs and grants to update business signage, etc. Perhaps some seed money from the Council would be useful too - athough these are straightened times.

I

This is the Windsor Place development that we knew about - it shows how buoant the student accomodation market is though.

LONDON (Alliance News) - Empiric Student Property PLC on Monday said it has struck a deal to acquire a student accommodation property in Cardiff for GBP40.0 million.

The property, its fourth acquisition in Cardiff, is directly opposite its existing Summit House property, located close to the University of Cardiff.

The new site will comprise 314 beds across a mix of studio and two-bedroom apartments. It is currently owned by developer Fusion Students and is expected to be operational by August 2016, in time for the 2016-17 academic year.

"This acquisition is our fourth in Cardiff, a vibrant student city with three universities and some 44,000 full-time higher education students, with above average numbers of international and postgraduate students," said Paul Hadaway, Empiric's chief executive.

"On completion of this scheme, together with the group's three other investments, our presence in Cardiff will reach 519 beds. This is an optimal scale for Empiric in the city and will enable us to derive further improved operational efficiencies between the four properties," he added.

£40 million seems expensive for 314 beds - £127,000 per bed. To get a decent gross yield of say 6%, they'd need to be charging £145 a week for a full 52 week lease (which would work out at £190 a week for a typical 40 weeks a year a student might actually want it). That seems expensive for a studio in Cardiff. You can get 2 bed private apartments in decent areas for not much more. So either some students are being ripped off, or there is a mistake in these figures.

Looking at it more, it does seem as if students are ripped off!

https://www.libertyliving.co.uk/student ... y-gardens/

A "deluxe studio" of approximately 240 square feet - so hardly that spacious - is £184 a week for a 51 week term. Thats £782 a month. You get your bills included there, so thats gas, electric, water, and telecommunications.

What about a private rental property. 2 bed flats in the city centre, cathays and the bay seem to average about £650-750 a month. Even at the upper end of that, as a student paying no council tax, you can probably get all your bills in at £900 a month. Split two ways £450 each. And you get a decent sized living space. Much more impressive and nicer to live in that a pokey studio.

Why do students pay these silly prices? Is it just overseas students who know no better? Or are our young adults now so immature that they (or their parents) are willing to pay over the odds so they don't have to deal with bills and landlords?

It looks like the prison's days are numbered. This would be a welcome change in my opinion. This article mentions residential development but the site is also large enough for a convention centre. So there's another plot of land that could be looked into.

http://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/polit ... Wales-Main

Neither Swansea nor Cardiff are mentioned as ones being sold this time round. Cardiff is probably less likey to be sold given upgrades in the mid 1990s. And as I said, I just don't see the clamour for the land/property in Cardiff given the existing brownfield sites in the city centre and bay areas.

I would have thought Cardiff is unlikely to be in the first wave of sell offs for the reasons mentioned above. Swansea might be a different matter, although I'd have thought it would be a much more valuable site after the West Glam County Hall site opposite is redeveloped.

If the prison did go it might well appeal to USW next door. I suspect that in coming years the college authorities may well be keen to develop the Newport and Cardiff campuses at the expense of Trefforest.

I agree. There is a list of Victorian jails in city centre/urban locations in the Metro today and in terms of the most valuable then I think Wandsworth, Pentonville, Wormwood Scrubs, Brixton plus Leeds and Manchester are higher up the list than Cardiff. Also Cardiff was extended significantly not so long ago so it isn't strictly speaking a Victorian jail with Victorian conditions.

There are enough brownfield sites crying out for redevelopment at the moment. Dumballs Rd has been good to go for at least a few years now and nothing has happened. Arguably that is a better location for residential than the prison site.