Regeneration proposals unveiled for seven large sites around Swansea

Richard Youle, local democracy reporter

Proposals to transform the beachfront Civic Centre and six other sites around Swansea have been unveiled.

Regeneration specialist Urban Splash envisages restaurants, cafes and bars on the ground floor of the Civic Centre and flats and potentially a hotel above, with a two-storey aquarium featuring marine life on the ground floor and digital and educational displays above.

Ideas

Urban Splash would like to make more of the green space between the building and promenade, with ideas including outdoor markets, a theatre and screenings, though it doesn’t end there.

The Civic Centre site straddles 23 acres and new blocks of flats feature in the drawings. New leisure and cultural uses, making the most of the waterfront location, also form part of the thinking.

The Civic Centre was built in the 1980s and is home to Swansea Council employees, the central library and West Glamorgan Archive Service. The council is relocating staff and the library and archives will move to the former BHS store on Oxford Street.

Urban Splash – appointed as strategic partner by the council in 2021 – set out sketches for the seven sites under the banner of City on the Beach at an event on December 4 and said it would like to hear from the business sector and public.

Jonathan Falkingham, the company’s co-founder, said there had been suggestions initially that the Civic Centre could be knocked down, but that’s not the case now.

“The building is really well made,” he said. “We think it’s robust, and it’s very adaptable. The upper floors are very flexible. We genuinely think we’ve got some really exciting uses for the building.” He added that asbestos and concrete surveys had been carried out. “We are fairly comfortable,” he said.

Urban Splash development director David Warburton said the Civic Centre site with its 550m of waterfront had space for potentially 500 to 600 new homes.

Unloved

The Civic Centre isn’t everyone’s cup of tea architecture-wise, which Mr Warburton alluded to when addressing an audience at The Green Room Bar and Kitchen by Swansea Arena. “Our job is to make you fall back in love with the Civic Centre,” he said. It’s too early to say when work would start though, and planning permission would be required.

Urban Splash is further advanced on another of the seven sites – a chunk of land from St David’s multi-storey car park to St Mary’s Square. Detailed planning permission has been given for a five-storey public sector office hub and there is outline consent for further development alongside. The current thinking is an office-led quarter featuring five additional blocks with ground floor commercial space, and a refurbished former Iceland building with some retail use. Mr Warburton said work was expected to start on the public sector hub next summer.

Urban Splash, along with partners it has brought on board, is also working on plans for around 160 homes surrounded by greenery by the River Tawe in St Thomas.

The other four plots it wants to redevelop are at Hafod-Morfa Copperworks, land on the Sainsbury’s side of the Sailbridge, open space behind The Observatory cafe at Swansea Marina, and what is now the Oxford Street car park opposite the Grand Theatre. There would be a mix of new homes, heritage, leisure and commercial uses.

Mr Falkingham lived in Swansea for four years as a teenager before going on to qualify as an architect, and said its waterfront location combined with its small scale and proximity to Gower to the west and Bannau Brycheiniog to the north-east made it very appealing to live and work in. He said he was also impressed by the council’s ambition and investment in city centre projects such as the new arena.

Mr Warburton said: “What really clinched it was they (the council) have moved beyond the rhetoric and actually started to deliver.” Asked whether there would be demand for the new office space planned at the St David’s site, Mr Falkingham said he believed this was the case.

He said: “The Welsh Government say they have enquiries coming in all the time for Swansea, but there’s nowhere for them to go.” He added: “Businesses are now more discerning about what space they take. They want it to be good quality, well-connected, not stuck in an enterprise park.”

Finance

Public sector finance might well be needed to make the office quarter a reality, and it could face some competition from the almost-completed office block on The Kingsway, the new Princess Quarter scheme on Princess Way, and the refurbished Palace Theatre near the railway station.

Mr Falkingham said Urban Splash had been talking to many people about its regeneration plans for the seven sites. Its City on the Beach brochure outlining its vision, he said, was “a gestation of a lot of those conversations”. He added: “This is an opportunity to engage more widely. The more ideas, the more engagement from people in the city, the better.” Mr Warburton added: “We are in this for the long term, for at least 20 years.”

Council leader Rob Stewart, who was at the City on the Beach event, said: “A huge amount has already been achieved including the opening of Swansea Arena, the re-opening of the Palace Theatre building and major investments in the look and feel of areas like The Kingsway and Wind Street, but there’s also so much more to come.

“This includes our partnership with Urban Splash that will see even more sites in Swansea regenerated for the benefit of local residents and local businesses.
People will continue to be kept informed and will have many opportunities to provide feedback as these proposals progress.”