Central Square

The Clayton hasnt been bought, the building housing it and Viva Brazil has been bought, it still has concerns about where its guests are going to park their cars. When competition is so high in Cardiff this is a factor that could tip the balance in another hotels favour, such as the Marriott which has a monopoly on car parking for city center hotels in Cardiff.

I dont get your point Randomcomment, your solution for someone saying they are worried about their primary business of being a historic hotel, is to tell them to change to a coffee shop/cocktail bar or fold? Dont get me wrong, i dont think the Royal Hotel has much to complain about with the loss of this car park, or that the pedestrianisation of St Marys street has affected it much, but i do think for such a central part of town, in a predominantly wet city, it isnt too much to ask for a car park, big enough to accommodate more than 2 dozen cars near the main train station.

20161028_162034 by Stephen Anstiss, on Flickr

The locations bidding to land a public sector hub employing 5,000 in the centre of Cardiff

could be home to 5,000 staff in what would be the biggest office scheme ever seen in Wales.

And we will know very soon where the UK Government will decide to locate a huge public sector hub in the centre of Cardiff.

As part of a rationalisation programme the Government Property Unit (GPU) is streamlining its estate of public sector offices across the UK and focusing instead on new super centres.

Projects have already been confirmed for Croydon and Bristol, and Cardiff should be next in line.

The shortlisted locations are Central Square, John Street, and a car park site at Bridge Street.








However, it could also see a further 200,000 sq ft of offices being built to house other non-devolved government organisations in Wales, like the Ministry of Justice and the Department for Work and Pensions.

If located at one site, it will provide nearly 500,000 sq ft of new grade A office space in a huge boost to the economy of the capital.

Last year HMRC announced that Cardiff would be one of 13 new super regional tax centres across the UK.

It will see 2,000 staff, currently located at its main Ty Glas operation in Llanishen, north Cardiff, relocating into the new HQ in the summer of 2019.

And that process of moving staff out of Llanishen has already started with the government department taking 50,000 sq ft of short-term office space at Brunel House in the centre of Cardiff.


Combined with other public sector operations at the hub, the total workforce could be around 5,000.

The shortlisted options are:

Central Square


Central Square site
The regeneration scheme, immediately to the north of Cardiff Train station, is being driven by property development firm Rightacres with the financial backing of L&G.

Cardiff council is also a partner in the Central Square scheme where construction of a new £120m headquarters for BBC Cymru Wales is progressing well.

Rightacres has earmarked available land to the north of Central Square covering the site of the former HQ and printing presses of owner of the Western Mail, Media Wales.

Rapport site at Bridge Street


Rapport site

Family-owned property company Rapport has a near two acre site covering a car park and offices it owns at Bridge Street.

It has teamed up with property development firm Stoford for its hub bid.

Stoford is no stranger to major property schemes in Cardiff having built the new HQ for insurance group Admiral, before selling the investment to Union Investment Real Estate.

Any scheme at the Rapport site would need planning consent. However, once seen as the least favoured of the three, the site is now being seen as a real contender.

John Street


Image showing the site of the John Street-Callaghan Square site
Property developer JR Smart already has planning consent in place for a major office scheme at a near two acre site it acquired last year at John Street-Callaghan Square.

Its new building could extend to more than 300,000 sq ft and in terms of delivery is in a better place than its two competitors, not just on planning but in that it is a completely cleared site.


John Street site
And with its adjoining Capital Quarter regeneration scheme, it has available space to easily accommodate a further 200,000 sq ft if required by the GPU.

Funding

The funding model would be for the bidders to build the office space for the GPU, financed with backing from an institutional investor.

The winning bidder would exit with a developer profit when the scheme is completed.

The investment would then transfer over to the partnered institutional investor, who would then receive an annual rent from the public sector tenant[s], with a lease of at least 20 years duration.

The cost of building a 280,000 sq ft HQ for HMRC would be around £100m.
http://www.walesonline.co.uk/business/b ... r-12130285

Although not announced HMRC seems to be close to getting a deal on the Bristol site - Salmon Harvester Properties’ 3 Glass Wharf on Avon Street, Temple Quarter Enterprise Zone, at about £28 per sq ft. Currently Croydon is the only site revealed internally to HMRC staff.

http://news.costar.co.uk/en/assets/news ... fice-move/

Would expect Bristol & Belfast to be tied up and announced and probably Birmingham Snowhill development before any decision made on the Cardiff site so probably a few months away yet. Brexit has not changed any of the plans and the spending is probably central to support economy in next 2 years.

After the "consultation period", they've somehow managed to make the transport interchange look even more cheap. Design changes include randomly scattered white panels where concrete once was. Hello, 1970s...

http://www.walesonline.co.uk/business/b ... ts-section

Someone please correct me if i'm wrong, but have the plans changed so radically now, the whole interchange is only 5 stories in height?

I'm worried the quality of the build for what is an integral part of the whole central square development, is being sacrificed to save on cost!

To scale back on a project is not the problem, the problem will be the possible use of poor materials. Unfortunately we may have a project now that within 5 years may look run down and very aged! I hope i'm wrong!

I think this development would have been a lot better had it not tried to be any more than its name, a "transport interchange". Trying to cram in a hotel, residential apartments, a restricted access car park, office blocks and retail space seems to be proving far too costly to create a development of any discernible quality. It would have been far easier and more practical (okay, maybe not as profit-yielding) to restrict this development to a bus station only.

I'm really hoping the planning committee reject this but I imagine they've been involved in this project from the get-go.

To be honest I'm pretty confused by this article full stop! Those images don't look any different to what we saw before - or if they are it's pretty minor. Regarding the 5 floors of office (that confused me as well??) I then came to the conclusion that they meant that 5 floors of the already planned building to be dedicated to offices - but if that's the whole building then, disappointing to say the least!!

All the previously released pictures of the 'less curvy' design clearly show five stories of office on top of the bus station and car park. Don't think this is anything new.

i walked past central square on saturday night on my way into town. that one central core nearest wood street looks huge...