May 26 2021

Billionaire businessmen the Reuben brothers have teamed up with Stallan-Brand Architects to prepare indicative plans for a mixed-use development on a major gap site at St Enoch, Glasgow.

A submission for planning in principle for the King Street Car Park outlines the potential for delivering a mix of apartments, shops, offices and leisure on the city centre site following positive pre-application discussions with planners.

This would carve up the expansive 5.4-acre island site into five development plots bordering King Street, Osborne Street, Stockwell Street, Bridgegate and Howard Street, which could deliver a variety of different accommodation mixes depending on the future evolution of the economy.

Planning advisors JLL wrote: "The proposed planning route is Planning Permission in Principle (PPiP). However, given the level of design detail submitted and comprehensive approach to its development framework, any planning consent decision notice (should GCC be so minded to grant consent) should contain certainty for the applicant on scale and quantum of development to ensure it is viable and deliverable. The application site is unique in its ability to support a variety of uses including residential, hotel and office uses.

"As such, a degree of flexibility is required within the PPiP application to enable the exact balance of different uses on the site to respond to market conditions over the delivery period. This flexibility is particularly necessary in the context of a post-Covid-19 pandemic economy where the recovery of different property sectors is still to be determined."

The consultant team includes Oobe, Woolgar Hunter and Atelier Ten.

18 Comments

#1 Posted by Parkguy61 on 26 May 2021 at 11:38 AM

Yet anther scheme for this. Hopefully this will be housing mostly.
I know these are early massing sketches but 2 of the images seem to be the same view with different buildings?

#2 Posted by Archibald Macduff on 26 May 2021 at 13:06 PM

The planners will probably reject it for being over-scaled, causing a loss of light and loss of privacy.

Planners just seem to reject everything recently for the same three reasons, over-scale, loss of privacy and loss of light.

The planners aversion to anything large scale is just bizarre, they seem to want tiny little 2-3 story buildings everywhere.

#3 Posted by Georwell 84 on 26 May 2021 at 13:24 PM

#2 Well said. Its almost like they have low density vision for Central Glasgow. I wonder if Edinburgh suffers from the same problem. This scheme would be great if it goes ahead.

#4 Posted by George on 26 May 2021 at 13:34 PM

Looks near identical to the Candleriggs development, someone has been on the copy and paste again...

#5 Posted by Mary on 26 May 2021 at 14:31 PM

Bloody awful.

#6 Posted by Spike on 26 May 2021 at 16:15 PM

The outline proposals are good and fit well with the high density development this part of Glasgow needs

#7 Posted by Charlie_ on 26 May 2021 at 16:17 PM

@George - its the same architects, Stallan Brand. The aspiration is for the two schemes to link together through a further development on the site of TJ hughes.

#8 Posted by David on 27 May 2021 at 00:35 AM

Terrific proposal! Get it built!

#9 Posted by Fat Bloke on Tour on 27 May 2021 at 08:32 AM

Nothing says failure like a surface car parks in the city centre -- so huge progress if it gets built in the scale shown in the drawings / renders.

Will change the dynamic of the whole area in one project -- the Briggait was only 30 years too early.

One question outstanding -- who owned the site and why were they able to make a living from car parking for so long?

Something very wrong with the economics when there are still so many gap sites in the centre of Glasgow -- why did Barclays have to go south of the river when there are so many undeveloped plots east of the M8 / Kingston Bridge?

Surely it is time to put an added cost onto landbanking -- the tumbleweed it produces is not conducive to a dynamic / productive city centre?

230 / 240 / 250 Broomielaw -- the wait continues.

#10 Posted by Chris Ditchfield on 27 May 2021 at 12:29 PM

@Fat Bloke ; assessor's valuation roll has the proprietor as Vegbada Estates Limited. Rateable Value is over £825,000, so the rent will likely be of similar quantum. Cracking covenant on the lease too, so it's a rock solid investment with development upside. Is that landbanking? If they don't have the expertise or funding to do the development, then it's understandable they'll just hold it until a buyer emerges. I've no info on them.

#11 Posted by Edward Harkins on 27 May 2021 at 16:11 PM

On the images here, yet another, featureless, anywheresville, proposal. Despite the matchstick dummies sitting around in the images, it'll probably be a bleak windswept streetscape as designed and so close to the river. If it's rejected on grounds of "over-scale, loss of privacy and loss of light", that'll do. Interesting comments here on land ownership; was a long term problem in Govan post Glasgow Garden Festival.

#12 Posted by David Griffin on 27 May 2021 at 22:02 PM

GCC sold it to Miller Stannifer, a JV but it made so much money as a car park that development became too risky. Lets get on with it.

#13 Posted by Billy on 28 May 2021 at 06:40 AM

Like it. Some balconies would be nice though. Hopefully not scaled down. Be good for the local economy.

#14 Posted by Wee Senga on 28 May 2021 at 09:17 AM

Plodding and character free. Ach I see, it's from Stalling Bland.

#15 Posted by Fat Bloke on Tour on 28 May 2021 at 11:36 AM

Bland is good.
City centre filler is good.
Tumbleweed car parks are bad.

What happens in the blocks is more important than how they look -- if they can generate some serious economic activity then great.

If it adds to the case for Crossrail then even better.

#16 Posted by Alex Cox on 28 May 2021 at 14:01 PM

#10
RV of £825,000? That's almost as much as they charge for four hours' parking.

#17 Posted by Donnie Darko on 2 Jun 2021 at 22:53 PM

(St. En)-och it’s alright, but I am sure I’ve seen this exact same development render set before...?

#18 Posted by Terra on 26 Apr 2022 at 02:38 AM

Its a yes from me.

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