January 29 2020

Glasgow City Council has granted approval for a 350,000sq/ft retail and leisure development on brownfield land where the River Kelvin meets the Clyde.

Consisting of some 120 individual shops in addition to restaurants, a 12-screen cinema and gym the Glasgow Harbour Lifestyle Outlet is being spearheaded by Peel Lifestyle Outlets at a reported cost of £100m.

Comprising six separate blocks the mixed-use scheme is located just off the Clydeside Expressway with multi-storey parking provision for 1,361 vehicles off Castlebank Street. It will include its own covered street, public squares and a pedestrian bridge over the River Kelvin to serve as an extension of the Clyde Walkway.

Primary frontages will include a mix of facing brick, timber-effect and metal cladding with the car park cloaked in translucent cladding and perforated metal screens.

In granting consent the committee wrote: “The applicant has submitted sufficient information to demonstrate the design qualities of the proposals and how they would assist in the ongoing regeneration of the River Clyde, incorporating enhanced accessibility measures and sufficient car and cycle parking arrangements, when assessed against the detailed requirements of the City Development Plan, including delivery of a new pedestrian and cycle bridge over the River Kelvin.”

The riverside complex will front a newly formed promenade and tree-lined boulevard, transforming 74 acres of former industrial land in the process. It is hoped the development could be open to customers by 2021.

24 Comments

#1 Posted by D to the R on 29 Jan 2020 at 10:28 AM

Oh be still my beating heart ... who wants to live in a shopping arcade? This is like Silverburn with hooses attached!?! What’s wrong with having to walk more than 10m to go shopping or find an amenity?? Maybe this is why we have the hives levels of obesity in the western world. I can wake up, eat, sit in a cinema seat for two hours and then head to Weatherspoons to drink till I fall over .... all with thin range of the WiFi connection in my front room.

#2 Posted by David on 29 Jan 2020 at 10:42 AM

Glasgow City Council really are idiots. I guess we can kiss goodbye to any retail provision in the city centre or Partick. Moves like this only add to the decline of the local high street and further the degeneration of streets such as Sauchiehall Street.
This land should have been developed as a high density residential quarter with some small retail units at street level, maybe ten or fifteen, but a new shopping centre with 120 shops, restaurants, and a cinema?! It's basically another Silverburn or Braehead. Very 15/20 years ago, well done GCC.

#3 Posted by MoBo on 29 Jan 2020 at 10:50 AM

Agree totally - this is all wrong on every single aspect. From the 'design quality' to what the knock on effect is on people to sustainability. How many times was the car mentioned!!! I despair - stop it now.

#4 Posted by Retailer on 29 Jan 2020 at 11:29 AM

Might be as well a nail in the Braehead coffin. The traffic tailbacks there will be enormous - SECC, Museum, The Harbour, and tiny roads leading to Dumbarton Rd/Byres Rd cross. All dead by 9pm. Well done GCC.

#5 Posted by 7yrsatuni on 29 Jan 2020 at 12:12 PM

Comments from Partick residents welcome as well

#6 Posted by Pablo on 29 Jan 2020 at 12:19 PM

Glasgow councillors in the dark ages as usual.

#7 Posted by Sir Ano on 29 Jan 2020 at 12:40 PM

Another nail in the city centres heart

#8 Posted by Fat Bloke on Tour on 29 Jan 2020 at 12:52 PM

Biggest issue is the developer -- they have a poor tack record at this type of development.

Salford Quays is brutal -- defeat snatched from the jaws of victory and then some. Cheshire Oaks it is not so hopefully lessons have been learned or we have given up a prime site to host Glesga's version of the "5 Sisters".

#9 Posted by Fat Bloke on Tour on 29 Jan 2020 at 13:01 PM

Outlet shopping might be the spawn of the devil but it is a facility that Glesga / the West of Scotland lacks.

If you want to sell the city as a shopping destination then it needs to have a full spectrum offer and that includes last years duds at 30% off.

It might be low rent filler but at least it is our low rent filler and the traffic to Cheshire Oaks should dwindle to a trickle.

Obviously the hipsters and the sense of place ultras will complain will but to them the future is all talk of local artisan shopping but an Amazon reality of vans and impossible schedules.

#10 Posted by Partick Architect on 29 Jan 2020 at 13:33 PM

I live 3mins walk from here and I am soooo happy to see something finally arrive on this site.

This empty site is a gaping hole between the Transport Museum, Partick Station and Meadowside flats. Perhaps with this development acting as a link, providing places to eat, drink, buy food, the flats might actually become attractive places to think about living.

The mixed use is perfect for the site.
Cafes&bars on the river. Not enough / ANY of these in Glasgow. Open late too hopefully!
Cinemas & gyms, as well as shops.
Residential to actually make it a neighbourhood, not just a shopping center.

Yes, its got huge amount of parking, but sadly most people still use cars. Its on the doorstep of Partick Station, so its not exactly out-of-town and inaccessible.

The standard worries about the-effect-on-the-high-street is always a worry with these things, but with Partick becoming ever gentrified, perhaps this might actually provide some slack to current commercial tenants. And have you ever tried to park at the West End Retail park? Mobbed!

I hope that this does get built, but more importantly the bridges get build (queue scepticism).

Does it look pretty? Errr...
But its needed.

#11 Posted by John on 29 Jan 2020 at 13:53 PM

Why has this been approved with 120 shops Retail footfall is going down, countless jobs lost, established names going to the wall, Argyle street and Sauchiehall st have loads of boarded up shops. Is the council hell bent on destroying the city centre?

#12 Posted by Partick Bateman on 29 Jan 2020 at 14:15 PM

I live in Gardner street, so perhaps have a different perspective to Partick Architect. I'm more concerned about the effects on Dumbarton Road.
I does seem an odd direction for the council to go in. Recent plans for the city centre highlighted converting the upper floors of retail building into residential because there simply wasn't the demand any more for retail space and it wasn't ever likely to come back. This seems to contradict that.
Years back there was talk of extending the footpath down the Kelvin to the Clyde. It's not clear from the article if that is part of these plans.

#13 Posted by Fat Bloke on Tour on 29 Jan 2020 at 17:31 PM

Outlet shopping is a destination in its own right -- can be very big business and deliver human facing jobs in large quantities.

This development will offer something different in the west of Scotland and will enhance the visitor pull of the city.

Consequently better to give it a go and see where it takes us than whinge and moan about it not being perfect and its supposed impact on Partick.

My only issue is the developer -- if they can mess up Salford Quays then they can crash and burn by the Kelvin.

#14 Posted by Damp Proof Membrane on 30 Jan 2020 at 10:10 AM

Imagine spending £74M on the Riverside Museum to then plant this right opposite it. A well designed place to live with active river frontage would have been better, no? I can't see this being supportive for sustainable amenity and use of Dumbarton Road and Byres Road.

#15 Posted by Jezza Alexander on 30 Jan 2020 at 11:18 AM

It's not bad. Relatively close to the city and easily accessible via the station. Flicking through the D&A, it has some decent ideas flowing throughout the site. Relationship between the resi and the rest of the development could have been better though.

#16 Posted by Fat Bloke on Tour on 30 Jan 2020 at 12:15 PM

Hopefully this development can fire up the Council to fix the "non" Transport Museum.

Too small with a self indulgent design and little thought put into its surroundings -- sense of place in hipster speak.

Consequently it needs love and lots of it.
The display of the model ships -- world leading collection -- is shameful and shambolic.

Issues for the refresh:

More space.
More ships.
More motor racing.

And then a better car park.

#17 Posted by Fat Bloke on Tour on 30 Jan 2020 at 12:24 PM

If this site takes off -- the only downside is the developer -- then hopefully it will be the turn of the "sleeve" and the SEC western car parks.

Another 1000 hotel beds would get the party started.
Sleeve = Museum to Distillery badlands.

#18 Posted by Under the Upas tree on 30 Jan 2020 at 13:11 PM

#13

Watch Dumbarton Road disappear.

''Outlet shopping is a destination in its own right -- can be very big business and deliver human facing jobs in large quantities.''

- Jeezo. Haud me back. Wish ah had a human facing joab.

''This development will offer something different in the west of Scotland and will enhance the visitor pull of the city.''

- Aye, Popeye. Something different? Like, what?

''Consequently better to give it a go and see where it takes us than whinge and moan about it not being perfect and its supposed impact on Partick.''

- Dear God! 40 years on, they are still coming to terms with the dustbowl that is Paisley caused by Braehead.

What utter bilge.

#19 Posted by Robin B's Discount on 30 Jan 2020 at 13:22 PM

@17, it would have been far better (not to mention far less pretentious) to just add you definition of the sleeve in the original sentence. By way of example:

"......the turn of the sleeve between the Riverside Museum and the Distillery."

#20 Posted by Fat Bloke on Tour on 30 Jan 2020 at 15:23 PM

The Bronskis are out in force today -- usual better yesterday nonsense regarding local shops for local people.

The future of retail?
Destination shopping -- face to face -- flogging last year's duds at 30% off vs home alone click frenzy based on Amazon's dark satanic mills and wee vans racing around trying to earn a crust.

As for the history lesson Braehead is much closer to 20 than 40 years old. Plus it was just another dollop of general shopping to make Clydeport sellable not anything different from Paisley high street.

Apples vs oranges -- discuss.

#21 Posted by Lumber-Jack dave on 30 Jan 2020 at 20:18 PM

#18 Dumbarton Road disappear...where underground? to the moon? What sensationist tripe. Do you work for the sun? So we should keep it the same cos it ain't broke? what a wall oper.

#22 Posted by Wee Senga on 31 Jan 2020 at 10:03 AM

The planners have let us down....again.

#23 Posted by Yorkhill resident on 1 Feb 2020 at 08:24 AM

This is glaringly unsustainable and in light of COP26 not the way forward for our city. There is nothing redeemable about this cheap development. Plonked on a beautiful site with no sense of place. A future ghetto.

#24 Posted by Kelvinside Man on 3 Feb 2020 at 11:57 AM

Bye Bye Byers Road!

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