Guess what, a new tesco is opening on cathays terrace.

Isn't it the old petrol station? Dunno when Tesco will finally get the message that people are pretty ambivalent about them to put it kindly.

Yes they'll have some trade but I'm sure that a lot of their convenience stores don't make a lot of money. They're just after market share and bugger the profitabilty.

Simon, its exactly the opposite. Convenience is the fastest growing and one of the most profitable parts of the sector. This reflects the growth of inner urban populations and the decline in car ownership amongst this part of the population (recent years have seen both 0 and 2+ car households grow in number at the expense of 1-car households). And difficulties in finding sites for supermarkets in urban areas. The prices are generally pretty similar to the main Tesco stores, but they tend to stock different items - less 'Everyday value', more finest, convenience and other high-margin items.

Its not really a dash for market share.. its a dash for one of the few profitable directions for organic growth.

In answer to Simon - yes it is the old petrol station. It's at the library end of Cathays Terrace. I think there are two floors of flats above as well.

I don't know if this is old news or not, but there is a MGY 'under offer' sign on the wasteland which stands alongside Mount Stuart primary school.

 Here it is 


It's that undeveloped patch of land which has the very ugly concrete rendered building - apparently some sort of sub-station - alongside it. Quite an eyesore, to say the least, for any potential developer to build around.

New hostel given permission on westgate street. Building empty for eight years. Good stuff if it works out for them.

http://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/local-news/former-office-transformed-five-star-hostel-6463873

CCS Lidl also given approval.

I'm looking forward to seeing this finished.

http://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/local-news/former-cardiff-nightclub-square-turned-6470029

Unless I mis-read the article it doesn't say when they'll start on the conversion or when it is expected to open.

Anyone know ?

I don't know either Kyle, although I notice that the licensing conditions mean that the venue can only open until 11pm. Frankly, that's pathetic and will inevitably lead to a costly appeal at some stage. Just two doors up one outlet (I think it's called a:m now) proudly boasts that it opens until 6am. Previously the Square was open until at least 2am and although the licence may have lapsed or been granted before the Saturation Zone nonsense was introduced I would have thought that the type of outlet that is being proposed would not add to potential public order problems. If so why the draconian licensing conditions? My local pub in the middle of a suburban housing estate opens later every day of the week.

The same conditions apply to La Bodega in High Street. The common denominator between these two outlets is that they are aimed at an older, higher end clientele. I thought this was what we were trying to encourage to diversify the night time offering and encourage older people to see the city centre as an entertainment destination. I get the feeling the Council simply impose these type of conditions (no doubt aided and abetted by the SWP) as some sort of automatic reflex without actually considering what they are doing.

This is good news for the media sector in the city. 65 new jobs and a new organisation.

http://www.walesonline.co.uk/business/business-news/american-entrepreneur-launch-amateur-sports-6477751

I would love for them to move down the bay, maybe in the Cardiff Waterside or Roath Basin developments.

It'll be interesting to see where they end up, but regardless it's good to see Cardiff has been selected over the likes of Manchester.

But Cardiff's only been selected because £500k of our money has been given to this business on a plate. Depressing really. When will people realise this sort of thing is ultimately impoverishing? You could get an ice cream seller to relocate to the South Pole if you paid it enough, but can anyone ever seriously think that distorting behaviour in that way is the way to create wealth?!

Didn't Admiral only come to Cardiff because of a similar deal? Was that a bad thing?

Read this quote from the WalesOnline article:

"The £3.5m investment will created 65 jobs in Cardiff, as well as a similar number of satellite offices in Manchester, Edinburgh, London and Newcastle which will have broadcast trucks to coverage a wide range of amateur sporting events."

Did you spot the grammatical and semantic mistakes? 3 in one sentence!

Great spot
Created
Similar Office
Coverage
Oi oi

Anyone know what is planned for the current Windsor House site once it's demolished ?

I saw this in last week's planning apps :

13/02678/DCI Application for Demolition Expected Decision DEL
Received: 20/12/2013 Ward: CATHAYS
Case Officer: Lawrence Dowdall
Applicant: Mr Clark The Nottinghamshire County Council (c/o Aberdeen Asset Managers), , ,
Agents: Savills, 12 Windsor Place, Cardiff, South Glamorgan, , CF10 3BY
Proposal: DEMOLISH THE FULL EXTENT OF WINDSOR HOUSE TO ENABLE THE REDEVELOPMENT OF
THE SITE
At: EC HARRIS, WINDSOR HOUSE, WINDSOR LANE, CITY CENTRE, CARDIFF, CF10 3DE

If I've got the right building it's not the prettiest (grey and has a part of it on Dumfries Place)

Also noticed this :

13/02646/DCO Full Planning Permission Expected Decision DEL
Received: 17/12/2013 Ward: PONTPRENNAU/ST MELLONS
Case Officer: Andrew Bates
Applicant: Mr D Jones Persimmon Homes East Wales, Llantrisant Business Park, Llantrisant, Rhondda Cynon Taff
Agents: , , , , ,
Proposal: WORKS TO THE JUNCTION OF CHURCH ROAD AND THE ACCESS ROAD OFF PONTPRENNAU
ROUNDABOUT (A4232) TO ENABLE A NEW ROAD ACCESS INTO LAND TO THE SOUTH OF
CHURCH ROAD. IN ADDITION THE STOPPING UP OF CHURCH ROAD AT ITS JUNCTION WITH
BRIDGE ROAD AND THE TRANSLOCATION OF A HEDGE ALONG CHURCH ROAD
At: LAND AT, CHURCH ROAD, PONTPRENNAU

A tiny thing on its own but a start to the proposed St Edeyrn 1,000 homes east of Pontprennau ? How far has that scheme got planning approval wise ?

The last thing I remember reading about it was last Spring here

http://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/wales-news/cardiff-housing-estate-plan-unveiled-2582892

Hodge House has been acquired in a £18.8m deal by Legal & General Property.

http://www.walesonline.co.uk/business/commercial-property/hodge-house-acquired-188m-deal-6505930

The framework of the atrium students union is on the way up.

Didn't know where else to put this -

http://www.walesonline.co.uk/business/commercial-property/welsh-government-considering-key-sites-6528493

It seems that the WG are looking at purchasing 2 sites in central Cardiff. The first is the corner plot at the north eastern part of CS. A red brick warehouse was demolished here a few months back. I always thought that with a bit of tlc that could have been converted into an attractive building which would have provided a nice counterpoint to the newer buildings and a reminder of the area's former industrial heritage, but what do I know?

This is a key site I think and could possibly link CS with Capital Quarter with access over the dock feeder that runs through it.

The second site is currently owned by two engineering firms which must mean it's situated on Dumballs Rd. Bellepheron are currently purchasing land between Dumballs Rd and the river for residential development (inc. 50% affordable housing) in what appears to be a joint venture with the Council. I wonder if this site being looked at by the WG will be earmarked for more residential or commercial.

Also WG still own part of CS south side which they are thinking of selling on to the Council who may or may not be looking at building a convention centre there.

I think on balance this is good news and points to an intention by the WG to get the enterprise zone going (in the absence of private developers this seems to be the only option) but with Capital Quarter, both sides of Central Station, CS, Dumballs Rd and Capital Waterside all in various stages of development I wonder if there is a risk that focus will be dissipated and we will end up with a large number of unfinished developments?

Looks like work on the old Habitat unit is imminent. Lots of building materials have arrived and hoardings are being erected outside the Hayes Island frontage. We know Miller and Carter Steakhouse will be an occupier of one of the three proposed units - does anyone know the identity of the other two or can hazard an educated guess?

Pieminister confirmed to be opening in St Mary Street in mid March. This on top of Brewdog's announcement that they are opening in Westgate Street seems to suggest that Cardiff is on the radar of the more 'trendy' chains.

I'm glad Brew Dog are coming to the city but I wish they hadn't chosen such a terrible unit. It means that the ground floor commercial in that building will be fully let (as well as the office space) which makes it possibly one of the most successful office schemes in the city despite being disgustingly ugly. Is there a moral somewhere?

I wish Brewdog - or someone - would take the plunge and open up in one of the very old buildings in Womamby Street (between Dempseys and Revs) that have had the exteriors renovated but are empty shells inside. Such a shame that they seem destined to remain empty.

Proposed swimming pool, leisure centre, gym and library for Splott, to replace the Star centre (planned to become housing). £9.2m. Built on site of existing pool in Splott park.

http://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/local-news/campaigners-react-proposal-new-community-6557397

There is also tremorfa park and moorland park. The star centre was actually built on the site of a park and it is well past it's prime. That part of the city gets shat on from a great height regularly so despite the architectural merits of the building it's refreshing to see something other than an industrial unit being built.

I'm confused. It's going on the site of Splott Pool, and in terms of green space will involve the loss of exactly one bowling green. This is hardly making a dent in Splott park, surely?

The only time I've been to the STAR Centre a junkie tried to score drugs off me in the car park. The place is also as ugly as sin, so it's not exactly a great loss.

The industrial unit comment was just a general observation that the usual development we see in splott/tremorfa is stuff like viridor or the shit that cardiff community housing assoc throw up. Splott swimming pool plus the car park and the changing rooms already take up a fair bit of splott park. It seems that this development will take up an additional bowling green. That's a shame but not disastrous. As for returning the star site to parkland (which only became parkland when the old splott council school was demolished in the 1970s) - its a nice idea but where does the money come from to build the community hub? Splott park is actually quite big and tremorfa park about 500m up the road is even bigger.

How is the applicant for the Windsor House planning 'Nottinghamshire County Council'? Have I missed something?

so quite a few buildings are nearing completion/started now.

we have got so far:

the admiral building
prospect place
primark store
media centre near the BBC studios
the gmb building
the old blind institute
car park near dr. who.
cardiff and vale college


while these are starting soon...

the pub site near the prison
atrium extension
student flats near barfly
habitat store being turned into two restaurants
liquid/life site

ones i think where something really needs to start and will make a dramatic change to Cardiff is at the:

rapport car park site.
around central station, especially looking forward to demolitions to start around there.
the site next to the chapel would be great to be developed.
the site across from the golden cross.

when will the york hotel be demolished and developed? taking ages for something to happen there.

sure I'm missing some others...

Me guess woyld be that some of the things on your about to start list will take longer than we think, or not at all. I dont think the barfly one will happen soon.

But you can add the Cardiff Met arts department to the nearly done list. And Cardiff uni business school. There is movement in the city.

Random news:

Kemi's Cafe in the Bay has closed! Apparently she is concentrating on the Pontcanna cafe instead. Craft in the Bay are looking for a new tenant...

A new eatery is opening called Munchesters in the former Malaysian cuisine outlet next to O'Neils pub ("St John's Church" one).

Italigo around the corner has closed down. Church St is looking a bit boarded up at the moment.