The final part of the Old Town Dock site in Newport is now primed and ready for up to £25million of mixed-use development, following a £600,000 investment from Newport Unlimited.
The remaining landscaping and infrastructure work on the final 10 acres of the 45 acre site has been completed and will allow the next stage of the area’s regeneration to begin.
To mark the occasion, a concrete plinth, featuring a recreation of a rare 1906 photograph of the working dock, was unveiled by Hamish Munro, head of regeneration at Newport Unlimited and Councillor John Richards, Cabinet Member for Economic Regeneration at Newport City Council.
Mr Munro said: “The transformation of the Old Town Dock area is something of which Newport can be very proud.
“The area now presents a huge investment opportunity for the city. It is a prime piece of development land located on the regenerated riverfront area and there has already been keen interest expressed from a number of developers.
“I can confirm that we have agreed terms with a family pub operator to take part of the site and will make a further announcement on this in due course.
“Newport, and the Old Town Dock area in particular, has changed a great deal over the years but its story is not over yet, and I look forward to the start of the next chapter in its history.”
Councillor John Richards said: “The completion of this work marks an important stage in the regeneration of the Old Town Dock area in Newport. The scheme offers developers an area that is ready for development and is an important stage in the regeneration of Newport.”
The Old Town Dock site stretches from Southern Distributor Road in the south to George Street in the north, and is currently owned by Newport Unlimited and Newport City Council in a joint venture. The infrastructure works were designed by public realm designers Gillespies; Stuart Hogg Property Consultants were appointed as commercial agents, while TC Consult was the quantity surveyor for the project.
The Town Dock, as it was originally known, was built in 1842 to take coal brought in on the Brecon and Monmouthshire canal and ship it around the world at a time when Newport’s docks were doing more trade than any other port in the UK. The lock at Old Town Dock was claimed to be the largest in the world at the time.
The reclamation of the area was one of the first projects undertaken by Newport Unlimited when it was formed in 2003. Since then, the area has been transformed with a £200 million redevelopment programme, with residential developments and a riverside park.
Redrow has constructed a mixture of 500 duplex and two-bed apartments at its £50 million Alexandra Gate development, while Fairlake has achieved an impressive Code 5 for its sustainable development of 101 one to two-bed apartments and two, three and four-bed homes. Westmark has developed 64 high quality residential units on the south side of Jacks Pill, and students have already moved in to the 441 apartments by Opal next to George Street Bridge.
The development also opens up a link between the wider Pillgwenlly community and the 1.1 acre Riverside Park which was completed earlier in the year. The park, which runs along the River Usk and was formally a derelict brown field site, has viewing platforms which look out over the river and will eventually link up to the Wales Coast Path.
The Old Town Dock is just one part of the multi-faceted regeneration programme that is being rolled out by Newport Unlimited in conjunction with its partners, Newport City Council and the Welsh Government.
By 2020, it is hoped that the regeneration programme will have created 12,000 new jobs, generated £0.8 billion of private investment, completed 3,000 new homes and created one million sq ft of new office floor space.