Planners behind the £1bn reshaping of Dundee’s Waterfront have released a million square feet of land in a bid to attract new developments and thousands of jobs to the city. A second half-a-million square foot package will follow in 2016.
The freeing up of the prime development sites, some ahead of schedule, comes after a vote of confidence from a joint Scottish Government and Royal Town Planning Institute-organised poll with tourists voting the town’s awarding winning Waterfront area “The Best Place in Scotland”.
All four plots – including a large site on the corner of West Marketgait and Greenmarket, and three running alongside the Tay Road Bridge’s — are being offered to office, leisure, retail, hospitality and residential developers. It’s hoped any commercial designs will incorporate ground floor café’s, bars and restaurants.
The ongoing redevelopment scheme is a joint venture between Scottish Enterprise and Dundee City Council, with the master plan setting a 2018 completion deadline. On its publication consultants Drivers Jonas, now part of Deloitte Real Estate, estimated that when fully developed the Central Waterfront area will support at least 5,000 jobs.
Last year Dundee Waterfront issued a plea for five additional hotels in order to meet a surge in visitors and a predicted £1bn increase in tourism spending in Scotland between 2015 and 2025. The invitation triggered a number of enquiries and discussions are ongoing with several developers and multi-national companies including the fledgling budget hotel chain, Sleeperz.
“The level of interest in Dundee Waterfront is very encouraging, and prompted us to make the sites available ahead of the planned timetable,” explained Mike Galloway, director of development at Dundee City Council.
“The growth in leisure and tourism spend alone will generate very attractive opportunities for hospitality, visitor attraction and support sectors such as transport and catering,” he added. “The release of this land will broaden the range of development choices and will we hope be well received by the business community.”
Development schemes in the pipeline for the central waterfront area — already the the size of 13 football pitches — include the £45m Victoria and Albert Museum of Design (pictured), slated for a 2017 opening and expected to attract at least 500,000 visitors a year.
Two other major projects are the new Dundee Railway Station and a proposed “Maritime Way” display of maritime-themed public art installations. There are also plans for a commercial and leisure marina at City Quay and talks have been arranged with several shipping lines to include Dundee as a cruise stop-over destination.
Dundee Waterfront has won a number of prestigious awards this year, including the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors’ Scotland Infrastructure Award and two categories in the Scottish Property Awards — The Judge’s Award and The Outstanding Individual Contribution Award which went to the city council’s Mike Galloway.
