It's looks as though the conversion of Northgate House (the brick building sandwiched between Lloyds and the old Bank of Wales building on Kingsway) into student accommodation is underway. I can't recall the plans in any great detail but I do recall the building being given an extra floor or two. I sincerely hope the developers don't follow the route taken by the developers of Shand House who basically plonked on top two extra storeys that look as though they have been taken from an entirely different building.

Apartment development in Pontcanna (on the site of an old hospital) is due to start in March:

http://www.loosemore.eu/the_apartments.html

I remember talking about that Pontcanna development years ago... it was resisted tooth and nail by the local residents as an over-development. Be interesting to see what the development now looks like.

Render of the apartment building:





I believe they are priced from circa £165k for a 1 bed up to £500k for a 3 bed.

The earlier phases of houses:

Welsh Government has just announced that Pinewood are opening a new film studio at Wentloog.

There's some activity at the former 'Sugacane' unit on Queen Street (underneath the Thistle on the corner next to the fruit & veg stall)

The vinyl cartoon mascots have been removed from the windows and there was someone in there taking some very detailed measurements for a whole morning last week.

I wonder if this means work on the 'Traditional Fish & Chip Restaurant & Take Away' is finally under way. There goes the diet!

The new Tesco Express at the northern end of Cathays Terrace is almost complete. It has 2 floors of residential above it and actually looks ok. Although a modern design it fits in fairly well with the streetscape and if anything adds a bit of interest by providing a counterpoint to the terraced housing (which is actually quite grand in that part of Cathays Terrace but has been very badly abused over the years). All my opinion of course.

Just been at Central.A few workmen on the site opp Mill Plaza, looked as though they were working on hoardings and a bit of groundwork. Could be post stormageddon but could be something else.

Any activity on that site and I know about it! it's become an obsession of mine!! I wandered past today and saw the work going on. I'm not 100% sure but it pretty much looked like they were just replacing the many hoarding panels that had blown over - perhaps making them good and secure for the next 10years!! goddammit we'll have a metro before anything ever gets built on this site!! still I sincerely hope I'm wrong and pile driving starts tomorrow!!!

Jantra - thanks for sticking up for me recently. I do think some of the Jantra-bashing here has gone far too far. But on this I disagree quite a bit.

I think Cardiff does have a shortage of new grade A space and has done for a few years. Speculative development seized up right across the UK and is only now thawing. In Cardiff, we actually saw some before most cities (at Capital Quarter), and I believe the Rightacres scheme is "privately funded" - unlike at the Callaghan or Capital quarter schemes, no head-leases are involved, probably reflecting the locational strength.

But I think we could now be heading for a situation where we get a bit too much come on to the market at the same time. We could be looking at 140,000 square feet at Capital Square, 100,000 square feet at Callaghan Square, 70,000 square feet at capital quarter (+ 70,000 square feet just about delivered). Thats 380,000 square feet.

At the moment, named large requirements sum to about 350,000 square feet, of which around 140,000 square feet is the BBC. If they take One Capital Square, things might be OK as together with the large requiements and other smaller ones, we might not see a glut. If they decide to go to the Station car park site, or to Assembly Square (not included in above supply figures) we're left with 210,000 named demand for 380,000 new space. And don't forget that a lot of the demand is relocations which would mean empty space elsewhere in the city (although some of that could become grade B space for smaller occupiers, or be converted to resi or student resi).

The article initially name drops Norman Foster Architects (I'm sure that practice doesn't come cheap!), then later states that a local firm called Rio has designed the proposed building.Hmm.

I'm struggling to imagine how such a building would fit in to the existing streetscape and maintain its sleekness per the image. It looks sort of triangular with one of the vertices (?) pointing to the Millennium Plaza.

Isn't this the same building that was proposed for the old glass needle site? Pretty sure we've seen that image before.

There are more details on the fish and chip restaurant/takeaway on Queen Street. An online petition to garner support for later licensed hours. Not sure they will get it, but makes a good case:

http://www.yousign.org/en/parclane

Something I noticed yesterday, the land adjacent to the A4232 link road (immediately as you join it coming from Junction 33 of the M4) a number of trees and bushes have been cut back and bags of sand/gravel have been emptied to create a level access from the hard shoulder of the link road.

I don't remember seeing anything planned for this portion of land, anybody have any insight? It might well be nothing...

was involved in a deal last year to take a decent amount of office space, looking at grade a, but depending on location could have been otherwise. Cardiff were in with a shout as location is good but choice was limited. costs were not that great consid4ring either.
ended up in Bristol.
Cardiff does need grade a, but needs to be priced realistically as well.

Not particularly exciting news but there are plans in next weeks Planning Committee for improvements to Cardiff Gate Retail Park - three new retail units (opposite the endless line of Sofa shops) a Gym and A3 unit at the end of B&Q's car park nearest Asda, and associated Car Park improvements and footpaths to link the retail park with the Business Park and (future) St Edeyrn's village.

Word is going around that Capitol are on the verge of signing a new tenant for the old Odeon cinema, who will operate it as a cinema! If true, this is great news I think.

Hopefully it's Picturehouse, my local one in Clapham has reclining seats and you can take booze in from the bar!

It would have to be an alternative/indie chain. Cardiff is over-screened in terms of commercial multiplexes. Vue is already struggling. I'm not sure an indie would work though. The Capitol Odean was a pokey place and with Chapter planning a third screen Cardiff is pretty well served for non-mainstream as well as mainstream cinema.

Light Cinemas are expanding and the number and size of screens of the old Odeon would suit them well.

The speed at which things move in Wales really is glacial (the rest of the UK isn't much better, mind).

Take for instance the "Circuit of Wales". The latest news is pretty worrying and I'm left feeling that the developers have been quite dishonest in their dealings with the local, Welsh and UK governments: implying the development could be undertaken for minimal public outlay, and after receiving approval and political support, then saying "oh we need £50 million by the way". I'm much less inclined to support the development now - it doesn't seem to be very commercially viable and has no firm commitments from the industry. But, another piece of news is that it might take up to a year to sort out issues around redesignating a replacement piece of land as "common land". Thats right, a bit of unsightly heather and scrub next to an industrial estate thats used by virtually noone was "common land" and therefore a whole lot of paperwork needs shuffling to designate some other nearby land as "common land".

When I watched Week In Week Out yesterday, any good faith I had to the Circuit of Wales had vanished. We should quit giving handouts to this white elephant and cut our losses. I always thought it was being built in the wrong place and for it to have a chance of being remotely successful it would have to be on the M4 corridor and ideally within 30 minutes of Cardiff.

No more news at the moment, although everything I've heard so far points to it being The Light as suggested above.

Wish I had the money to restore The Gaiety as a cinema. I fear we'll end up losing this building.

http://planning.cardiff.gov.uk/online-applications/files/7AC4E6E8DEF7790B95B0AC2C811CFA3D/pdf/14_00572_DCI-DESIGN_ACCESS_STATEMENT_February_201432278130000.pdf-1529420.pdf

A proposal for some houses on Schooner way fronting Bute Dock East.

In principle, I think a development here is a good idea: for some reason, at the moment, the flats on this part of schooner way turn their backs on the water rather than face it. And there is a bit of un-utilised space between the water and the road.

But the proposed design is completely out of keeping with the neighbouring buildings, and all others around the dockside. The houses aren't a big enough feature to become a new architectural focal point so will just look awkward when compared to the red-brick developments fronting the dockside. It could be quite easily rectified replacing the black walls in the pictures with red-brick walls. What were the architects thinking?

http://planning.cardiff.gov.uk/online-applications/files/F74217F1E70230C27808DF0810894331/pdf/14_00580_DCI-PLANS__DRAWINGS_AND_SUPPORTING_INFORMATION-1530272.pdf

Proposals for office use above Morgan and Royal Arcades on the St Mary Street side. Helical Bar seem to be pretty active landlords.

Been mentioned a couple of times on here - now the formal application has gone in for redevelopment of the old forge building in Taffs Well (between the station and the A470):

14/00577/DCO | REQUEST FOR OBSERVATIONS - DEMOLITION OF EXISTING BUILDINGS AND SITE CLEARANCE TO ALLOW FOR THE ERECTION OF 140 NO. RESIDENTIAL DWELLINGS, 50 SPACE EXTENSION TO THE EXISTING PARK AND RIDE OVERFLOW TO SERVE TAFFS WELL RAILWAY STATION, ACCESS, LANDSCAPING AND ASSOCIATED WORKS | South Wales Forgemasters Ltd, Garth Works, Taffs Well, Cardiff CF15 7RN

Isn't the site still operational? Are they proposing a move / downsizing or are they shutting up shop completely? Can't find information about the business proposals online.