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Doorstop wrote:I've been doing a bit of research on the Drumchapel shopping Centre development or the lack of therein and the trail has led to the local planning officer, a Mr David Gibson, bloody nice bloke who this very morning took a sizeable chunk out of his day to relay to me some of the fact of the new development of the centre as it stands.
The development is a partnership between Glasgow council and a private development concern, PPG Metro based in Edinburgh.
The actual work on site was originally planned as a 60 month phased development involving demolition (obviously already partially completed) and then a new build of both retail accommodation and new local government offices which include a new Civic Hub and more specifically a new Police station as Strathclyde police are finding the logistics of policing Drumchapel area problematic with their existing infrastructure.
Land for the new Police station has already been allocated and accounted for in the Strathclyde Polices' budget as this is apparently a priority as far as both the Police Regulatory bodies and the council are concerned. Mr Gibson added that the new Civic Hub build was, at present, under review as to size, function etc due to present financial restraints placed upon the council.
The rest of the Centres' development is, due to factors outwith the councils' control ie credit crunch etc, in a state of flux in as much as retail park layout etc is concerned.
The main player in the old Centre was and is obviously Somerfield. This retailer currently occupies a 40,000 foot premises that, according to Mr Gibson, has been struggling to function at half capacity.
The plan was to, after demolition of the old Somerfield premises, construct an entirely new building of 20,000 square feet to house the new 'Somerfield' concern.
This plan was thrown into uncertainty by Somerfields' corporate buy out by firstly the Co-Op and then subsequently Morrisons .. this uncertainty has unfortunately had a knock on effect on the subsequent phases of development as they are all pivotal on the main player having a finalised plan.
So in short the new Drumchapel Arndale centre looks to have a new, smaller supermarket (Probably a Somerfield, possibly a Morrisons), a new main Civic Hub or Council Office and a new main Police station for Drumchapel itself and the surrounding (Garscadden etc) districts. Other retailers have been in talks with PPG Metroabout taking up the remainder of any retail outlets but Mr. Gibson was somewhat reluctant to divulge who they actually were as the proposed development of their phases of the retail park were the ones undergoing dynamic changes in plans at the moment.
Mr. Gibson has promised to keep me appraised of any developments by email so I'll post them here as and when I get them.
glasgowken wrote:Does anyone have photos of Drumchapel, from Victorian days til the 70's ?
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