Chapman Taylor develops new city centre regeneration framework for Swansea

On Thursday 29th of January, Swansea Council launched its marketing campaign to regenerate Swansea’s seafront which it hopes will breathe new life into the town and capitalise on the already established £360 million tourism industry to Swansea Bay. The proposed scheme is billed as the most important development site in Wales.

The 14-acre Civic Centre site will be a leisure and hospitality focussed development and will be largely funded by private investors and not the council. There are proposals for the scheme to incorporate an aquarium as well as an ocean sciences research facility. The regeneration plans also include The Kingsway, with plans to turn it into a business district with major office developments proposed to encourage financial industries and hi-tech startups to the area. To kick start the redevelopment it is likely a new relocated council building for admin staff will be constructed, along with a new Central Library.

Also included in the development plans are improvements to ‘High Street’ which has recently seen a change from a predominantly retail to residential including student housing and new cafes and restaurants.

Roger Wilson, from Chapman Taylor who are advising Swansea Council, and who has worked on the framework said ‘the redevelopment is about more than just buildings, but connecting parts of the city with “green arteries” and public spaces.’ He added that getting people living and working in the city was key to any regeneration and it had been hard to achieve in recent decades in Britain.

“At the end of the day what we want to do is knit together parts of the city. Greening the city has huge benefits. Swansea has a river, a marina and a seafront — not many cities have this.” In this respect the new plans have huge potential to make Swansea significant, not just in Britain but Europe, if not the world.

The next steps in the project for the two initial development sites are the Civic Centre site and the St David’s site which are to be marketed to potential developers ahead of a process to identify development partners to meet with the council to bring the two sites forward. In due course, the Kingsway development opportunity will be bought to the market.