ARENA TAKES CENTRE STAGE IN TRANSFORMATIVE SWANSEA PLAN

A new 3,500-seat arena is at the heart of plans for a major redevelopment of Swansea city centre that could support thousands of jobs and attract millions of pounds of investment to the city.

Swansea Council put the Civic Centre and St David's sites on the market last year and has been in talks with a number of developers over regeneration plans.

It has now announced the appointment of Rivington Land and Acme to regenerate a site on Oystermouth Road comprising the former St David's shopping centre, the St David's multi-storey car park and the LC car park.

The winning bidder has proposed a 3,500-seat arena, which would be capable of hosting major international performers, exhibitions and conferences, and a new tall residential building that it said could rival Meridian Tower, currently Wales' tallest building.



The proposals also include a new retail street, a restaurant and café quarter, a state-of-the-art cinema, a new public square and improved links between the city centre and waterfront.

Trebor Developments, which has been appointed to lead the regeneration of the Civic Centre site (pictured above), is proposing a mixed-use scheme featuring apartments, town houses, cafés and restaurants.

It will also work with Swansea University to explore the potential for a 'hydro hub' at the site that could include a public aquarium and a state-of-the-art aquatic sciences research centre.

I applaud loudly the ambition, I doubt that it will bring benefits & the long term viability of some of the 'wow' projects. I read in one of the press releases the city wanted to position itself as capital of south west Wales. That is worrying.

I applaud loudly the ambition, I doubt that it will bring benefits & the long term viability of some of the 'wow' projects.

Indeed - particularly since the most important part of the original proposal, the urban square above Oystermouth Road, appears to have been ditched already. Until Swansea deals with the problem of an urban dual carriageway splitting its centre in two any development in inevitably piecemeal.

I read in one of the press releases the city wanted to position itself as capital of south west Wales. That is worrying.

I don’t necessarily think that’s a bad thing. What’s the alternative? Swansea becomes a bigger slum or shrinks to a small size? If we think that the Metro together with future planning developments is effectively leading to the merger of Cardiff and Newport perhaps Swansea has a role to play in the west and provide a good balance/alternative.

Cardiff/Newport/Valleys city region in the south east, focusing on financial services, creative industries, law, retail and professional services?

Swansea/Port Talbort/surrounding region focusing on marine, coastal research, engineering/manufacturing?

Do we want to end up with the English model whereby the capital has everything and the rest go begging? Or do with think that Wales can only support one major city and try and develop some critical mass in the Cardiff area?

Because there is more to the world than Wales, there are cut throat businesses out there who need to brought on board and to see a vision. Being the capital of south west Wales means you have eclipsed Llanelli, Carmarthen & bloody Ammanford. There are 200k in the city - another 300k odd in the wider area who I think deserve alot more than a tall building & a nice plaza. West Wales deserves a far more outward looking vision. Its small, its very Welsh & it does no justice to anything.

Cardiff is not perfect & some of its marketing output is cringeworthy (not to mention incorrect) but things like Europes Youngest Capital, Europes most exciting waterfront shows that that there is an awareness beyond the Severn Bridge.

Wales needs centres firing on cylinders, it needs visions that can inspire people to visit, invest, believe in where they live. Capital of south west Wales does none of that. It makes the city small & insular. I am from Pembrokeshire, I am a west Walian, Swansea was supposed to my city growing up. Did I go there? Nope. Would I go there now? Nope. Do these plans make me want to visit? Nope.

Small, small , small. Wales needs bigger.

I spend most of my time in Swansea, and I can say for certain that it really is in need of heavy, heavy investment. There's just absolutely nothing going on. The tower isn't even anything to be proud of, it's just where the wealthier folk live looking over the swathes of poorly looked after suburbs. The "city centre" is barely even a town centre - City Road is bigger on its own.

I like the vision, and I know that they are really pushing for a technology and engineering focus, but I can't see it working out due to the location. There's also relatively few places for highly paid workers to live. This city centre development will hopefully help spark something, but I'm not convinced. Right now the city would be dead without the universities. Swansea Council don't seem to have a brain cell between them unfortunately. The road network is not only nonsensical and off-putting, but dangerous, and they allow First buses to rob the public with their extortionate pricing schemes.

Interestingly, the original plans showed two 100m+ towers along the beach. I wonder why they were dropped. A sign of not being able to pull in investors, or a change of ambition?

The former I would suggest. It really needs a huge amount of money, SA1 is a dog's dinner, the centre as Cen says is awful - Carmarthen pulls in only slightly less footfall & there is nothing remotely 'city' about the place.

None of this is cause for gloating. Swansea needs to up its game. Wales really needs it to, whilst Cardiff & Newport (or rather Celtic Manor) look to a wider UK, even European goal, Swansea is stuck in a mindset that is damaging to its future. These proposals are 6th form IT project. It needs more, alot more!

All capital cities get more money... See the world

My only concern is that swansea could end up with the 2 tallest buildings in Wales... Come on Cardiff ffs

I think the posts above are simultaneously too pessimistic about things as they are now, and too ambitious for what could be in future.

First up, while Swansea city centre is clearly struggling, and in some ways lags behind Carmarthen in vitality on the retail front (although certainly not in square footage), even now it outperforms Newport. Quadrant is quite successful, as is the middle stretch of Oxford Street. SA1 hasn't taken off as expected but as the gaps are filled in, including with Trinity St David's development, it will start to feel livelier. One question mark though is whether in the longer term, it will be sustainable for the city to try to have two main office areas - SA1 and Kingsway.

Second, Swansea actually has some really decent suburbs to the west and south west. Uplands is a decent inner urban area - a sort of mixed Cathays and Pontcanna. And then you have Mayals, Mumbles, Sketty, Bishopston, Dunvant, etc.

Third, I think the ambition of being the "Capital of South West Wales" clearly does have some relevance given what has been said above. As a first stage of upping its game it should be ensuring that people in the whole region see it as a key destination for retail and leisure. If you live in Pembrokeshire and Carmarthenshire it should be "your city".

Beyond that, I think plans are of only limited use. The job of a good city council is as an enabler for development and economic growth. Not a planner of which sectors to focus on. I just don't know what sectors Swansea's comparative advantage is in. For all this talk about marine and coastal industry/research... what opportunities really exist in this sector? How big is the market? Is Swansea really that well suited? Maybe Swansea is actually better suited as a spoke of the Cardiff city region, providing customer service roles or IT services?

What the city needs to do is ensure it has high quality transport and communication infrastructure, a range of business premises in good locations, an attractive urban environment, and the flexibility to grow and responds to changing conditions.

And on these plans, I don't think they are under-ambitious. I think they are quite bold for a struggling city.