ReGlasgow

TRANSFORMATION Of St Enoch Centre Site Approved

30 May, 2023 | Major Developments

CITY councillors have agreed that the St Enoch Centre can be demolished, with the site redeveloped over the next 15 years.

Owner Sovereign Centros has been given approval to transform the Glasgow shopping centre site with a mixed-use scheme including retail, food/drink, leisure, hotel, offices, serviced apartments and hundreds of flats.

The St Enoch Centre will be knocked down and replaced with new buildings in blocks with new streets, public realm, and landscaping. Detail planning applications will still need to be brought forward for approval.

City planning officers had recommended that the proposal be given the go-ahead, stating: “The proposal would redevelop the site providing a mix of uses in a more traditional built form of individual outward facing blocks, including high density housing within the City Centre, which would benefit from sustainable transport choices.

“This provides ample opportunity for local living within the City Centre as well as compact urban growth through the formation of nine development plots within an area previously occupied by a single development.”

Their report continues: “Despite the extent of demolition proposed, the potential transformational benefits to the City Centre in terms of re-population, placemaking, sustainability, air quality, biodiversity and health and wellbeing from the development, cannot be underestimated.”

A design document included with the application stated: “The parameters of the application for planning permission in principle seek to establish the key principles for the proposed development, as well as the maximum extent of development that can come forward in terms of height, density and use.

“This Design and Access Statement includes an illustrative masterplan which provides one possible illustration of how the development could be built in the future.”

A new ‘St Enoch Street’ will go from east to west across the site, anchored at either end by a hotel (west) and a residential tower (east).

The statement explains: “Both buildings provide prominence and act as a gateway into the site and would be of exceptional design quality.

“The street predominantly provides active retail frontage, in order to retain St Enoch’s status as a retail destination, whilst providing a car-free, and landscaped area of public realm.”

Nine plots will be developed over 15 to 20 years allowing parts of the centre to remain open whilst demolition and construction proceeds. Demolition would take place in four phases, each lasting six months.

Developers say benefits of the development would include:

• New open streets north to south, east to west that re-establish pedestrian links.

• Re-establishing St. Enoch Square as a focal hub, a place where people will want to dwell and soak up the atmosphere.

• Creating an architectural presence to the east side of St. Enoch Square that supplements and supports the historic architecture and business on the west side.

• Creating a new leisure hub/ square within the redevelopment that supplements St. Enoch Square and draws footfall between the two.

• A mix of uses that supports vibrant daytime and night-time economies.

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