Green light for £300m masterplan for the mixed-use transformation of Candleriggs Quarter in Glasgow and new hotel

21 May 2020

The long-awaited regeneration of Candleriggs Square, one of Glasgow’s most high-profile city-centre sites, has taken a significant step forward following the granting of planning approval by Glasgow City Council.

The ambitious £300m plan to transform the 3.6-acre site lying at the heart of Glasgow’s Merchant City has been developed by a joint venture company bringing together Drum Property Group and Stamford Property Investments, which bought the site in March 2019.

Proposals include a high-quality mixed-use scheme combining homes, offices, hotels, restaurants and local amenities together with landscaped open spaces and accessible walkways – with a new public square at the heart of the development. Approval has been granted for a ‘Planning Application in Principle’ for the entire site as well as for a detailed application for the first phase of the development.

Candleriggs Square - bound by Wilson Street, Hutcheson Street, Candleriggs and Trongate - is regarded by many as the last and most significant piece of the Merchant City regeneration jigsaw. Originally home to Glasgow’s flourishing fruit and vegetable market, for most of the 20th century it was used as a department store before remaining unoccupied since the closure of the last operator in 1999.

Drum and Stamford’s joint venture inherited an existing planning consent, approved in 2016, for 850,000 sq. ft. of residential, student, hotel and commercial space. The approved planning application makes significant improvements to the quality of design and site accessibility, which reflect the site’s unique setting at the heart of the Merchant City.

Welcoming the planning approval, Graeme Bone, Managing Director of Drum Property Group, said:

“This will be a huge boost to the area and to local businesses, who are in desperate need of some good news right now. Our thanks go to Glasgow City Council for their efforts in maintaining an efficient planning service in the midst of the current crisis, allowing developments of a scale such as this to progress".

He added: "“We can now look forward to a once-in-a-generation regeneration opportunity, transforming a very special area which has always been at the very centre of Glasgow’s commercial and social development. We look forward to progressing with our development plans as soon as we can and moving forward with construction activity when we are able to get back to work. We will then provide further detail about our plans and our long-term vision to once again make Candleriggs Square what it always was – a bustling market-place full of life, vitality and interest, intrinsically linked to the rest of the city centre.”

In their report, planners stated: “The underlying design intention for the Candleriggs masterplan is to reintegrate the site and its buildings with its immediately surrounding context and, as a consequence, the Merchant City, by creating a vibrant, active and eclectic development which can successfully contribute to its unique sense of place and, thereby, its continued cultural heritage.

“It is considered that the proposed development succeeds in this aim through its varied offer and its associated architectural response.

“Trongate and Candleriggs, whilst historically an important part of City Centre retailing have suffered significantly over the last two decades, coinciding with the contraction of the main shopping streets.

“A key concept of the scheme as a whole is to provide diversity across the site, to allow for the creation of a mixed-use development with vibrant 24-hour activity.

“The arrangement of the built form has been driven by the desire to achieve a dynamic, attractive and safe place, with complementary active uses at ground floor level, including small floorspace retail in appropriate locations. There has been no unrealistic expectation of proposals involving major retail floorspace.”

The report added: “The proposal will facilitate the major regeneration of the Candleriggs site and will have transformational benefits to the urban fabric and to the environmental and social wellbeing of the Merchant City and beyond, acting as a catalyst to further development, without encouraging vehicle journeys or adversely affecting car parking.

“The site is fully accessible from all surrounding streets, with permeability enhanced through the creation of new routes through the site which converge on a large public square designed for multi-functional use. There will be no vehicular access through the site, other than service deliveries during specified hours.

“An extensive scheme of amenity space and public realm for the wider redevelopment site, including hard and soft landscaping, entertainment/community spaces, rain gardens, seating and informal play areas, water feature(s) and public art has been agreed in principle.”

Phase one will see construction of The Student Hotel on most of the street block bounded by Hutcheson Street, Trongate and Brunswick Street. The brand caters for long-term guests, which includes students, and will have a restaurant and bar, a business centre (co-lab), an auditorium, a gym and a retail unit.

Plot B which will have around 350 build-to-rent apartments as well as a range of commercial units at ground floor, with a generous entrance lobby fronting Trongate, giving direct access to a communal landscaped courtyard at first floor in addition to a range of roof terraces giving views across the city.

The other three plots will be suitable for office, residential and hotel use also with restaurants, pubs and an element of retail.

The council report further explains: “A deliberate decision has been taken to introduce buildings of various heights and plot widths and to locate taller buildings away from corners and further into the site to allow the development to respond to the site’s distinct and varied urban context and to ensure a contextual response to surrounding streets and existing buildings.

“The Merchant City is generally not considered to be a ‘sustainable area’ suitable for ‘tall buildings’, however, the scale of this vacant site provides the opportunity to permit height in appropriate locations.

“The massing of each building has been broken down and articulated to create a varied townscape that is consistent with the built form and physical character of the surrounding Merchant City.

“The tallest buildings are indicated to be 15 and 16 storeys and are focused around the new urban square within the site, away from the existing streets.”