AMBITIOUS plans for two huge tower blocks at the Wharf Green end of the Brunel Shopping Centre are on display to the public this week.
If approved, here’s how the proposal by centre owners FI Real Estate Management’s would transform Swindon's retail district.
1. A high-rise town centre
While it is full of modern buildings, Swindon has only one really significantly tall building in its centre – the David Murray John Tower.
If the Brunel plans are approved and built then its pre-eminent position will be lost. It will become one of three skyscrapers in the heart of the town. And FI REM goes one further – the company’s model for the town centre shows a large block on top of the covered market off Commercial Street. A 15-storey stack of flats on the site was given approval in 2017.
2. A new vertical 'village' in Wharf Green
Swindon’s town centre has previously been criticised for being a “retail desert” and being very quiet at night, shutting down largely after 6pm when the shops shut. If 280 flats are built at Wharf Green, with anything up to 600 people living there, FI REM says it will revitalise that part of the town centre.
The company says will serve the new population, opening at different times – early in the morning, later at night – and it says the development will create an evening economy in the area.
Apartment dwellers will want places to eat and to drink and socialise, and places to go and things to do.
3. A new green space in the heart of Swindon
While Swindon is a green town, there’s little in the way of open space between Spring Gardens and GWR Park in Faringdon Road.
FI REM is promising to build what it calls a ‘pocket park’ in the space off Farnsby Street, where now there is a spiral ramp up to a car park.
4. Revitalising Canal Walk
Canal Walk links the residential area south of GWR Park to the main shopping area, but directs pedestrians to a dark underpass under a multi-storey car park FI REM says its development will create an attractive link to the town centre.
5. A landmark for Swindon
The £40m development could act as an anchor to attract further investment to the town centre.
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