Covid and students topple Glasgow hotel plan
February 21 2023
A bid by Artisan Real Estate to build a 248-bed hotel at 292 St Vincent Street has been thrown up in the air owing to the impact of Covid-19 on the hospitality sector and surging demand for student accommodation.
Going back to the drawing table the developer has teamed up with Homes for Students to repackage their existing consent for 321 studio apartments within the approved massing and utilising the same building envelope of bright terracotta.
Again overseen by Hawkins/Brown the latest proposal promises enhanced public realm on St Vincent Street 612sq/m of private external amenity space, arranged over four separate levels.
In a consultation statement, the applicant wrote: "Despite the fact this is a tight City Centre site there is the opportunity to enhance the public realm within the depth of site and maximise the opportunity of the roof terraces to provide private outdoor amenity space. These external terraces will then be managed active social spaces that will animate the roofscape of the building."
A detailed planning application is expected in April with completion scheduled for summer 2026.
4 Comments
The city slipped up badly in the late 80's, early 90's with their plans for IFSD and with that an extended Central Business District. The opportunity cost was that of a mixed use, diverse city neighbourhood where folk could live and work and play. Today about a fifth of the city centre is mono-use office /commercial space and you need only walk a few blocks west of Buchanan Street and you step into ghost town territory. Not a how a resilient city territory should work.
The office workers that are now working from home means that the CBD is even less of a resilient proposition and we need a resident population to replace them.
The stated aim in the City Centre DRFs of doubling the population from 20k to 40k now looks rather unambitious. I think we need more if we are to compete with the likes of Manchester city centre which is approaching and likely to exceed 100k in the next few years.
This scheme will help - even if the architecture is unremarkable.
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