Glasgow – Clyde waterfront ...




The scale, pace and diversity of its regeneration has revitalised the upper Clyde, particularly here in Glasgow with the development of the Merchant City, International Financial Services District (IFSD), Pacific Quay, the Scottish Exhibition & Conference Centre (SECC), the new Riverside Museum and Glasgow Harbour, making the Clyde Waterfront area once again a very popular place to work, live, shop and play!

Key waterfront regeneration information


Progress to date and highlights

It is often said “The Clyde made Glasgow and Glasgow made the Clyde” – famous for its ship building and heavy engineering heritage, the River Clyde has undergone a huge transformation in the last decade, reinventing itself as a centre for financial services, creative industries and business tourism as it flows through Glasgow, Scotland’s biggest city, with many brownfield sites now providing new residential, retail and leisure space for the 30% of Scotland’s population that lives nearby.

The Clyde Waterfront Regeneration Initiative (CWRI) aims to continuing developing the upper Clyde between Glasgow city centre, Renfrew and Dumbarton over a 20-25 year period as a thriving international location for businesses and communities in which to invest, locate, visit and live that offers a competitive advantage, creates jobs, increases output and benefits Scotland.

Since 2003 over £2 billion has been invested along the 13miles (20km) of Clyde Waterfront area across over 250 projects by the public & private sectors, creating more than 20,000 new jobs, 320,000 metres2 of new commercial space and 9,000 new homes, with a further £1.5 billion of investment currently underway or committed, giving Clyde Waterfront continued momentum.

Examples of significant Clyde Waterfront developments to date:

Offices - BBC, Capella, The Hub, Orkney St, Titan Enterprise & Titanium Business Park
Housing - Adelphi Court, Castle Quay, Cuprum, Ferry Village, Glasgow Harbour & Rashielee  
Leisure - Grand Central, Glasgow Science Centre, Riverside Museum, Titan Crane & Xscape
Retail - Braehead, Brewers Fayre, Dobbies, Porsche, St Enoch’s Centre & TK Maxx
Public Amenity - Broomielaw, Clyde View Park, Govan & Kelvin pontoons & The Saltings
Infrastructure - M74 Extension, Clyde Arc “Squinty” and Tradeston “Squiggly” bridges

Commercial and public sector partners

The CWRI is a national priority regeneration programme delivered by the Clyde Waterfront Strategic Partnership, comprising the Scottish Government, Scottish Enterprise, and Glasgow City, Renfrewshire and West Dunbartonshire Councils.

With particular strengths in financial services (www.ifsdglasgow.co.uk), creative industries (www.creativeclyde.com), tourism and shipbuilding, the Clyde is being transformed into a very attractive, highly skilled, well connected and cost competitive location.

Future challenges and objectives

The diversity, scale and pace of its economy give Clyde Waterfront a real momentum, with many previously derelict brown field sites revitalised. However, looking to the future, there are still many commercial, retail and residential opportunities for developers, investors and companies in the area. Examples being more Grade A office space in the IFSD / city centre, more hotels and hospitality venues besides the Clyde, particularly at the Broomielaw, Pacific Quay and Glasgow Harbour and more residential opportunities right along the 13 miles of waterfront from the Merchant City, SECC, Renfrew, Clydebank, Erskine to Dumbarton.

By 2028 it is forecast that the Clyde Waterfront area has the potential to create:

The waterfront economy & community


Clyde Waterfront’s 13 miles (20km) are sub divided into 6 key character areas, namely:

Glasgow City Centre – Glasgow’s award winning International Financial Services District (IFSD) www.ifsdglasgow.co.uk has attracted +£1bn of investment to date via global companies like Aon, Aviva, Barclays, BNP Paribas, esure, HSBC, JP Morgan, Morgan Stanley, National Australia Group, Santander and Tesco, creating 15,000 new jobs since 2001. New occupiers, 1million ft2 of new Grade A offices, the Tradeston “Squiggly” bridge and exciting leisure plans for the Broomielaw quayside, all add fresh impetus.

Pacific Quay & SECC – this area is now being marketed to the creative sector as Creative Clyde (www.creativeclyde.com) STV and BBC Scotland are firmly established here and 50 more creative SMEs like BIP Solutions, Shed Media and Savalas are based in Medius, The Hub and Film City Glasgow respectively. A Floating Village is planned for the Canting Basin and opposite the 12,000 seat Scottish Hydro Arena opens in 2013, reinforcing the area’s credentials as a world class entertainment and conferencing venue.

Greater Govan & Glasgow Harbour – the award winning £1.2bn Glasgow Harbour development has further shops, restaurants and hotels planned besides the £74m Riverside Museum, which has welcomed +500,000 visitors since opening, many of whom have come via the Govan ferry operating from new pontoons. Opposite BAE’s shipyard employs thousands of highly skilled workers building huge sections of two 65,000 tonne aircraft carriers for the Royal Navy and a £70m action plan for Govan is transforming one of Glasgow’s oldest communities.

Renfrew Riverside & Scotstoun – Braehead, already Scotland’s busiest shopping centre, is due a £150m expansion. Xscape boasting SNO!Zone, Skypark and Soccer Circus, has become a hugely popular leisure destination and nearby at Ferry Village, six developers are creating a range of 2,000 new homes next to Clyde View Park which opened in 2005.

Clydebank & Erskine – The 10,000 students attending the £37m Clydebank College and thousands of visitors surveying the area 150ft above Queen’s Quay from the refurbished Titan Crane, have transformed Clydebank’s waterfront, along with the Enterprise Pavilion. Whilst on the south bank, Erskine’s riverfront has considerable potential for future development.

Old Kilpatrick to Dumbarton – plans are developing for West Dunbartonshire’s riverside including British Waterways’ Bowling Basin, Dumbarton Harbour / Town Centre and Aggreko are building a new manufacturing HQ at the £100m Lomondgate business / housing / retail development, near where BBC Scotland film “River City”.

Education


Our free on line resource (www.clydewaterfronteducation.com) offers teachers 200 lesson plans that link 12 Clyde themes with 8 subjects as per Scotland’s Curriculum for Excellence. These lesson plans are reinforced for schools when they go on Clyde Marine Services Ltd “Classroom on the Clyde” river trips.

Tourism: we have produced 150,000 Heritage Guides to attract the public to the river (www.clydewaterfrontheritage.com) and in 2011 Clyde Link and Clyde Clippers started new ferries on the upper Clyde, complimenting other river operators like Seaforce RIBs, Loch Lomond Seaplanes and the Waverley Paddle Steamer.

Skills & talent

Glasgow is Scotland’s largest urban economy, generating almost £17billion Gross Value Added each year and supporting over 450,000 jobs. The number of jobs located in the city grew by more than 70,000 in the ten years to 2005, making it one of the fastest growing cities in the UK.

In what is now a services-based economy dominated by financial and business services, public administration, health and retail, average earnings have seen a year on year increase and investment in business, infrastructure and property is thriving.

70% of Glasgow’s population (592,000) are of working age and the city has now reversed a long term downwards trend due to a combination of a steady flow of in-migrants, more employment opportunities as well as the social and cultural infrastructure to attract and retain residents.

Glasgow’s FE and HE institutes attract students from all over the UK and internationally.
A total of 67,155 students were enrolled in Glasgow higher education institutions in 2009/10.

Glasgow has a strong HE sector with three of Scotland’s largest universities located in the city – Glasgow, Strathclyde and Glasgow Caledonian. The city is also home to the world renowned Glasgow School of Art and the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama.

The Sunday Times (2010) ranking shows the University of Glasgow in 22nd place; the University of Strathclyde in 39th; and Glasgow Caledonian University in 63rd place of 122. Glasgow is the third highest ranked Scottish institution behind St Andrews and Edinburgh.
 
In 2009/10, 97,420 students enrolled in Glasgow’s further education institutions. The subject areas with the highest number of students are Information Technology, Business Administration, Social Studies, Creative Arts, Engineering and Technology.

Almost a third of Glasgow’s working age population is educated to degree level and above.


Useful Links

www.clydewaterfront.com
www.ifsdglasgow.co.uk
www.creativeclyde.com
www.glasgow.gov.uk
www.glasgoweconomicfacts.com
www.renfrewshire.gov.uk
www.west-dunbarton.gov.uk
www.scottish-enterprise.com
www.infoscotland.com

 


Other information


The 2014 Commonwealth Games


The 2014 Commonwealth Games are expected to act as a catalyst for investment and regeneration, and spark a massive influx of visitors, leaving a lasting legacy for the city. Glasgow has an ambitious new Tourism Strategy to increase tourism revenue by 60% by 2016, and the Games are expected go a long way towards helping achieve that. Around 100,000 additional visitors to the city in the three years following the Games.  New hotel projects along the waterfront are an essential element in accommodating this growth.

Since the announcement in November 2007 that the Games are coming to Glasgow, several new projects have been initiated in the Clyde Waterfront area that will contribute to their success.

Among them is the new £125 million National Arena at Scottish Exhibition & Conference Centre (SECC) on the Clyde waterfront, which will be Scotland's top venue for large scale concerts, conferences and events, is scheduled to open in 2013, creating

In addition, vital transport projects are in place to improve city centre travel. Clyde Fastlink will provide a tram-like experience between the City centre, SECC and Glasgow Harbour, with buses that travel in dedicated lanes.

It is anticipated that the net economic benefit to Glasgow will be £26 million, while the benefit to Scotland will be £81 million. In the three years following the Games, there could be a net increase of 4% in tourism, which equates to approximately £30 million in additional expenditure.


Glasgow named an IBM Smarter City


During March 2011 Glasgow became the first UK city to win a grant from the IBM Smarter Cities Challenge initiative. The grant provides Glasgow with access to IBM's top experts to analyse and recommend ways the city can become an even better place in which to live, work and play.

The IBM Smarter Cities Challenge is a competitive grant program in which IBM is awarding a total of $50 million worth of technology and services to 100 municipalities worldwide over the next three years. Teams of specially selected IBM experts will provide city leaders with analysis and recommendations to support successful growth, better delivery of city services, more citizen engagement, and improved efficiency.

IBM received several hundred applications from more than 40 countries for the 2011 grant programme. The review team were “highly impressed” by the Glasgow bid, which is one of 24 cities worldwide to be selected to receive a Smarter Cities Challenge grant.


Glasgow voted European City of the Year at the Academy of Urbanism's 2011 annual awards


Glasgow beat off competition from Budapest and Helsinki to win the title of 2011 European City of the Year in the Academy of Urbanism Awards, which recognise the best, most enduring or most improved urban environments.

The Academy's assessment of the city highlighted a 20% growth in Glasgow's economy in the decade to 2007, when the city gained 63,000 jobs and 45,000 residents.

The Academy of Urbanism is an autonomous, politically independent, cross-sector organisation formed in 2006 to expand urban discourse. Its members include industry-leading architects, planners, engineers, developers and designers.

John Thompson, Chairman of The Academy, said: “Glasgow’s post-industrial transformation has secured its future as a major European city while at the same time preserving its rich architectural and design traditions. The Academy believes this significant achievement deserves to be recognised and celebrated.”






SEARCH THE SITE