Watt Brothers hotel project can be 'catalyst' for Glasgow

The timing of the announcement was certainly fortuitous.

Just days after the fire which destroyed the much-loved “Union Corner” building, a fixture on Glasgow’s Union Street for nearly 175 years, it emerged that planners had approved an application to turn the former Watt Brothers department store on Sauchiehall Street into a hotel, providing a boost to city champions when it was badly needed.

Regardless of the timing, it is undeniably a good thing that work can now begin to reimagine a favourite building of Glaswegians and hopefully spark the regeneration of one of the most depressed parts of the city centre.

It has certainly been a long time coming. James and Sandy Easdale, the owners of McGill’s Buses and a vast commercial property portfolio, first lodged their plans for the Watt Brothers building in April 2022. By that time, the building had lain empty since 2019, when the historic Watt Brothers department store chain fell into administration, and Glaswegians had begun to despair that yet another prominent building would be neglected amid the depression that was enveloping the area.

And those with the best interests of Glasgow at heart have certainly had plenty of reasons to be less than optimistic about the outlook for one of its most celebrated streets. By the time the Easdales unveiled their original blueprint for the Watt Brothers building (the original application was refused by the council in September 2022 amid objections to its plans for a roof extension), Sauchiehall Street had been badly scarred by fires at the Mackintosh Building at the Glasgow School of Art and the former Victoria’s nightclub, as well as the closure of a host of major shops, from BHS to Dunnes. Those challenges were magnified by pandemic lockdowns and protracted street renovation works, which contributed to a sense of desolation.

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There is no doubt that challenges remain on Sauchiehall Street, which are abundantly clear from even the most cursory look. A street that so many of us will recall as one of the most vibrant and bustling in Glasgow is blighted by significant gap sites and vacant units, not least the former BHS department store which has been unoccupied for nearly a decade following the collapse of the famous retail chain. It is also impossible at certain times to escape a sense of menace in the air, which will clearly be undermining the city’s standing in visitors’ eyes.

Thankfully, there are people across the business community and working in local politics who are not of a mind to accept the status quo and allow Glasgow to be doomed to perpetual decline. And these include the Easdale brothers, who have shown their faith in the future of the city by going back to the drawing board and revamping their plans for the Watt Brothers building in a manner that has been supported by the council.

The revised plans will see the historic building turned into a hotel with around 100 guest rooms which, the Easdales said in a statement, will provide jobs both during the construction process and when the hotel is up and running.

James Easdale hailed the “substantial private investment” in the project as a “hugely significant step forward – not just for this building, but for the wider regeneration of Glasgow city centre”.

He declared: “This is about turning a prominent empty building into a catalyst for wider renewal and confidence in Glasgow’s future.”

For those keeping their fingers crossed for a brighter future for Glasgow this would have undoubtedly made for encouraging reading. The addition of a high-quality hotel will bring not only the chance to add something new to the hospitality offer in Glasgow – traditionally one of the city’s biggest strengths – but the possibility of bars and restaurants opening and thriving in the vicinity. It will also offer a new place to stay for the many people who travel to the city for conferences, concerts, and sporting events.

But a new hotel alone will not be enough to drive the regeneration of Sauchiehall Street, which is why it is important to highlight the other investments that are in the pipeline. Just yards from the Watt Brothers building, work is under way to construct a new student accommodation block with commercial offer at the site of the former Marks & Spencer store.

Further up Sauchiehall Street, plans have been tabled by Vita Group to turn the former ABC music venue – originally home to a cinema bearing that name – into a mixed-use development, comprising student beds and a public food hall. Those plans were approved by the council last summer, but have since been called in by the Scottish Government amid concerns over what it will mean for the neighbouring Glasgow School of Art following the second of two blazes at the Mackintosh Building.

Elsewhere, work has begun on the first phase of the £250 million Charing Cross Gateway, which promises to deliver further student accommodation at a site close to Charing Cross station. Phase two of the plan, which will seek to establish a gateway into the city centre from the west end, will incorporate Grade A office space, private homes and retail units.

There are plenty of people questioning why there is such a thirst to build student accommodation in the city, but it is probably safe to say that the developers would be unlikely to press ahead with such investments if the demand was not there. Attracting fee-paying students from outside Scotland is certainly a major strategy of the city’s universities, for obvious financial reasons.

While the prospect of modern student accommodation blocks springing up in the city centre is not to everyone’s taste, there is no doubt that an increase in the number of young people living in the centre of town is good for its general vibrancy, providing much-needed income for supermarkets, bars, restaurants, and coffee shops.

Of course, it could be argued that the problems facing Sauchiehall Street and Glasgow city centre will not be solved by a series of isolated student accommodation or hotel projects. It is regularly argued in the private sector that the planning process in Glasgow is too slow, and that the city lacks an overall, cohesive strategy for its long-term regeneration, or at least one that the public at large is familiar with and buying into.

But what these investments do signal is that Glasgow, despite all of the problems it faces in the here and now, is still an attractive place to invest for the long term.