Glasgow can remain one of the leading UK retail cities, but to secure its future it will mean having a bit less of it, according to the city council leader.
Councillor Susan Aitken said covered city centre malls have uncertain futures but that city streets could be endlessly adaptable.
Her comments came as a report was delivered to Glasgow City Council’s City Administration Committee on plans to demolish Buchanan Galleries and replace it with a mixed-use urban neighbourhood.
Read more: Glasgow concert hall steps: Call for new public space to make up for their loss
Owners Landsec want to create a £825million mixed-used site including homes, offices, retail, hospitality and new city streets.
Councillor Aitken said: “It might seem that it is counter-intuitive to destroy in order to save and to demolish Buchanan Galleries in order to build resilience and sustainability into the city centre.
“People have become used to and perhaps even fond of Buchanan Galleries over the years. It wasn’t universally popular when it was built but they will wonder why such a radical transformation is necessary and particularly a demolition with the environmental impact that that has.
“It might be more helpful to think of the broad proposal as going back to a previous time and perhaps a restoration of Buchanan Street and the surrounding area an on-street high street and an on-street retail experience.”
Councillor Aitken said retail still has a hugely important role in the city centre.
She added: “It is a big employer, particularly of women, but securing the future of retail probably means having a bit less of it and more of those other uses, particularly city centre living. We will remain one of the leading retail cities on these islands.
“At the time Buchanan Galleries were built city centre malls were all the rage, but arguably nothing ages faster than the fashionable, but it is clear now that these kind of covered malls within city centres have an uncertain future at best. City streets don’t go out of style. They are endlessly adaptable and adaptability might be the key quality that Glasgow city centre needs for future proofing and in building both economic and environmental sustainability in the future.”
Read more: Mary Queen of Scots letter could fetch around £18,000 at auction
Labour group leader Councillor Malcolm Cunning said he could see that one of the key elements was opening the city grid back up and connecting the Sauchiehall Street area, along to Cathedral Street.
He raised the issue of demolishing a building that is 23 years old and noted Landsec’s intention for the project to be a net zero development. He also said that given previous proposed expansion plans for the site dating back to 2010, it would seem they have “dodged a bullet” given the way retail has been affected in the past few years.
In terms of achieving net zero, Councillor Cunning said: “I think we need more flesh on the bones as to how that operates as even someone who is technically restricted knows that pouring concrete is one of the most carbon intensive activities so how the entire thing lands up at net zero, I think at some stage we need more detail on.”
Mr Cunning posed the question with a mixed-use development including residential, what would be the enhancement to the city in terms of enhanced council tax. Councillor Aitken said at this stage it was too early to say. She added that Landsec intend to commit in excess of £10m to progress planning design and legal matters if the report was to be approved by councillors.
Councillors gave their approval for officials to enter into negotiations with developers Landsec.
The council said it will look at using Tax Incremental Finance (TIF) to support some of the major works needed to deliver the masterplan.
This would include a proposal to construct a capping over some, or all, of the North Cutting of the railway line at Queen Street Station to create a platform for either a building or a public space, in addition to public realm works in and around the area. Progressing the cap will require Landsec to obtain consent from Network Rail, and discussions for this have commenced.
TIF is a financial mechanism promoted by the Scottish Government through a series of six pilot projects, one of which was the earlier Buchanan Galleries TIF in Glasgow. TIF allows for a local authority to borrow over a 25-year period to deliver enabling works in the form of new and enhanced public realm and community infrastructure, creating an environment that will leverage new private sector investment and in turn deliver additional non-domestic rates (NDR) from the consequent development activity.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel