Has Swansea cooked up the perfect recipe for regeneration?

Is there something so simple as a recipe for successful regeneration? Each serving is different, of course, but there are some key ingredients. First, combine strong civic leadership and a private sector partner with a long-term vision. Add distinction, innovation and, if available, a dash of heritage. Mix together and serve with a cocktail of uses. A simple but rewarding meal. Only it’s seldom so simple. There remain very few examples of successful urban regeneration at scale. Exemplars – King’s Cross and…? – are few and far between. One city aiming to grow that list is Swansea. A little more than a year ago the council launched a search for a long-term development partner to help create a vibrant, 24-hour, living, working and leisure destination. Last month it picked Urban Splash as the preferred development partner to help deliver the £750m project, spanning Swansea Central North, a plot running alongside the River Tawe in the St Thomas area of the city and the iconic and beautifully situated civic centre. Urban Splash won’t be starting from scratch. The council has been building bridges – quite literally in the case of the new Copr Bay Bridge, which will surely come to be known as the Crunchie or perhaps the Taco – to better connect different parts of the city. And though state-of-the-art can be an overused term, it’s justified in the case of the new £135m Swansea Arena and the 90,000 LED bulbs that allow it to project outwards as well as stage events inside. Proven track record It’s this proven track record of delivery that is persuading business and residents that this colossal regeneration project will be a success, believes council leader Rob Stewart. “I think if we’d have said a few years ago that we were appointing a partner, people would have questioned whether we could do it and whether it would happen. None of that happened when we announced Urban Splash as our joint venture partner,” he says. “People have changed their opinion of what’s possible and the confidence is there, and not just from the public, but from the development partners, from the builders, from the people who can really help us make the changes to the city.” Remember that extra ingredient in the regeneration recipe? Well, on top of an enviable waterfront location, Swansea can offer repurposable heritage assets too, especially in the form of the brutalist civic centre. Here, Urban Splash’s track record was persuasive. “They’ve done a really great job in a number of areas, including some of the historic buildings they help restore, and that really attracted us,” says Stewart. “But it’s also the strength of their consortium partners and the range of people they were bringing with them to help us deliver more housing, more leisure. And they just seemed an ideal fit for us in Swansea.” Urban Splash land director David Warburton is excited by the potential of the city and of the civic centre in particular. “We’ve already got this amazing city on the beach. But the key issue at the moment is that the city is not really well connected to the beach. So we see the civic centre as presenting an opportunity to really create a vibrant, mixed-use visitor destination with restaurants and bars and lots of opportunities to live here in some fantastic new apartments and homes. It’s something which we can really work on now to create Swansea’s new waterfront.” Confidence boost Warburton sees parallels with previous Urban Splash projects. “We’ve done probably around 60 neighbourhoods around the UK over the last 27, 28 years. And quite a number of those are in a maritime environment. Every city is really very different. But I suppose the closest parallel maybe is Plymouth and Royal William Yard, where we started 20 years ago with a collection of redundant but fantastic former naval buildings, which we’ve now carefully restored and converted to the city’s pre-eminent visitor attraction.” This is a regeneration project that began five years ago and is about halfway to completion, says Stewart. And it’s what’s been delivered that gives the business community confidence about the next phase. “It is really putting Swansea on the radar for more investors and encouraging them to look more at Swansea because it’s turning from artists’ impressions into reality, which is absolutely amazing to see,” says Russell Greenslade, chief executive of the Swansea Business Improvement District. For Lisa Hartley, manager of the city’s Quadrant Shopping Centre, it isn’t just the headline projects that will determine success. “We need to have that mixed-use development,” she says. “Swansea traditionally just hasn’t had the volume of workers and residents in the city, which is what we need.” That requires more residential and more focus on the use of space. Wind – pronounced wine for good reason – Street is a cluster of pubs, bars, clubs and restaurants. Soon to be pedestrianised, it will improve the city’s daytime food and beverage offer. Neighbouring Castle Square is being revamped too. “We’re going to have a place where you can have events in the day and in the evening and people and families sitting outside in the sun enjoying a meal,” says Robert Francis-Davies, cabinet member for investment, regeneration and tourism. He’s undeterred by these tough times for physical retail and the leisure industry. “It’s a time to be brave. Anybody can sit back and blame and complain. What we are going to do is reshape, repurpose Swansea, a place that people visit and want to have the dwell time. That’s through culture, hospitality. People living here bring the vibrancy to it. It’s a time to be brave.” Bravery, that’s another essential in any regeneration recipe too. Upholding sustainable ambitions Regeneration isn’t enough in and of itself. It has to be sustainable. Two years ago Swansea Council committed to reaching net-zero carbon by 2030 and as a wider city and county reaching net-zero carbon by 2050. One example is 71/72 The Kingsway, where the council is funding 114,000 sq ft of commercial floorspace at with support from the European Regional Development Fund through the Welsh Government. BREEAM Excellent, the former Oceana nightclub site will provide space for 600 jobs and do so sustainably. “It’s going to collect rainwater to water the trees and the flowers and the living green wall,” says Andrea Lewis, cabinet member for climate change and service transformation. “There’s a green roof. We’ve got solar on the roof as well. There’s underfloor heating and heat capture systems. I think 71/72 The Kingsway can be upheld as an excellent building in terms of energy efficiency and helping us to reach our carbon commitments.” Perhaps even more remarkable, a pebble’s throw away, is a former temple to retail currently undergoing transformation. This former 50,000 sq ft Woolworths and Poundland site is being reimagined by Hacer Developments. Biophilic Living at Picton Yard will provide affordable new homes and workspace alongside a community urban farm. Working with Pobl Group as well as Swansea University, the Active Building Centre, Public Health Wales, and a number of local community groups, Hacer aims to build a community that addresses social exclusion and loneliness, as well as responding to the climate emergency through an innovative approach to carbon capture. “Our purpose is to turn this this building into a mixed use of commercial office, residential, exhibition and education space and into something hopefully unique and innovative, the first certainly in Wales, and I’m hoping probably the first in the UK,” says MD Carwyn Davies. Expert speakers Rob Stewart, leader, Swansea Council Andrea Lewis, cabinet member for climate change and service transformation, Swansea Council Lisa Hartley, centre manager, Quadrant Shopping Robert Francis-Davies, cabinet member for investment, regeneration and tourism, Swansea Council David Warburton, land director, Urban Splash Russell Greenslade, chief executive, Swansea Business Improvement District Carwyn Davies, managing director, Hacer Developments   To send feedback, e-mail damian.wild@eg.co.uk or tweet @DamianWild or @EGPropertyNews In partnership with                   Photo: Pixabay