Conwy County Borough Council
Environment
Colwyn Bay Waterfront Project
Watersports Centre Leasehold Opportunities
Information Pack
G.B. Edwards BEng (Hons) Head of Environment, Mochdre Offices, Conwy Road, Mochdre, Colwyn Bay, LL28 5AB.
Tel. (01492) 574000 Fax. (01492) 575199
Reference: EP0802
INDEX
CONWY COUNTY BOROUGH COUNCIL
Environment
COLWYN BAY WATERFRONT PROJECT
Watersports Centre Leasehold Opportunities
Information Pack
INTRODUCTION ...... 2 BACKGROUND ...... 3 REGENERATION PROJECTS ONGOING IN THE LOCALITY ...... 6 INITIAL CONCEPT…………………………………………………………………………………7 PROJECT FUNDING...... 9 DEVELOPMENT OF WATERSPORTS HOTSPOT...... 10 RETAIL UNIT DESIGN BRIEF…………………………………………………………………..11 CONCEPT DESIGNS OF WATERSPORTS CENTRE...... 13 INTERNAL LAYOUT OF WATERSPORTS CENTRE………………………………………...15 WATERSPORTS CENTRE - LEASE REQUIREMENTS...... 16
ENVIRONMENT JUNE 2011 Page 1 INTRODUCTION
Conwy County Borough Council is currently in the process of developing and delivering the Colwyn Bay Waterfront Project, a major project intended to secure the long term protection of the town and provide infrastructure to drive the economic regeneration of this once popular and successful coastal resort.
The overarching objectives of the Colwyn Bay Waterfront Project are providing renewed coastal defences along the town’s shoreline, to protect the residents and businesses of the town from the threat of the sea, and to carry out environmental improvement works along the promenade to offer a modern, robust, sustainable and attractive public realm to draw new visitors to the area.
In early 2011, engineering works began to construct the first phase of the new coastal defence works and form the foundation to the new Watersports Hotspot, a key area within the improvement strategy for the new promenade.
Ensuring the eventual success of the Watersports Hotspot as both a popular facility for the local population and user groups and as a draw for new visitors to the town is essential. As such, Conwy County Borough Council have appointed an Architect led Design Team to design a new functional, attractive and sustainable destination, playing a key part in the future success of the Waterfront and the town.
This document provides companies interested in lease opportunities within the landmark Watersports centre with information in relation to the development.
This information pack provides background information for the town of Colwyn Bay and the Waterfront Project itself and also sets out the initial concept design and internal design layout of the Watersports Centre which will be key to the success of the new Watersports Hotspot.
ENVIRONMENT JUNE 2011 Page 2 BACKGROUND
Colwyn Bay is a town and coastal resort in Conwy County Borough on the North Wales Coast. Principal settlements comprise Rhos on Sea to the west, the town of Colwyn Bay in the centre and Old Colwyn to the east. A site location plan is provided below.
The Watersports Centre in Colwyn Bay will be located in a prime area less than ½ mile from J22 on the A55. It is also only 50 minutes from Chester, 1 hour from Liverpool and 1½ hours from Manchester. The new development will also be conveniently located adjacent to other Sports and Leisure Facilities namely the new Eirias Park Rugby Centre.
ENVIRONMENT JUNE 2011 Page 3 The existing promenade follows the waterfront from Rhos on Sea past the Victorian Pier in the centre of the bay and round to Old Colwyn. Kiosks and shelters are situated along the promenade and there are slipways and steps located at regular intervals for beach access.
The town of Colwyn Bay was first developed in 1865, around the railway which predates the town by approximately 20 years. By 1878, Colwyn Bay was a premier seaside resort and development of the town continued during the early part of the twentieth century with the opening of Victoria Pier in around 1900, construction of the promenade along the seafront between 1898 and 1911, continued residential development and the extension of the railway.
Colwyn Bay Waterfront circa 1890
The success of the town as a coastal resort continued through the early part of the twentieth century with the town continuing to attract substantial visitor numbers with the beach and promenade acting as the key draw for tourists wishing to escape the pollution of Britain’s industrial cities.
Colwyn Bay Waterfront circa 1930
ENVIRONMENT JUNE 2011 Page 4 The promenade behind the town’s Waterfront continued to develop and trade successfully with extensive facilities and infrastructure in place through and beyond the 1950s to cater for the needs of visitors and tourists.
Colwyn Bay Waterfront circa 1950
Like many other seaside towns, the growth of the foreign holiday market led to a decrease in visitors and subsequent decline in tourist infrastructure. The construction of the A55 expressway through the town in the 1980s accelerated decline by creating a physical barrier between the town centre and the waterfront. The success of Colwyn Bay’s promenade and waterfront has subsequently changed substantially since its heyday.
Colwyn Bay Waterfront 2009
ENVIRONMENT JUNE 2011 Page 5 REGENERATION PROJECTS ONGOING IN THE LOCALITY
PARK EIRIAS
The £6.5 million Parc Eirias will be situated directly opposite from the new watersports centre in Colwyn Bay. When complete, Parc Eirias will provide a state of the art venue for sporting events. This investment will upgrade the rugby pitch to International standard, create a 2500 seat covered grandstand, VIP boxes, floodlights and modern changing facilities for the sporting teams. The work will also contribute to the stadium achieving Category A status for athletic events. The Welsh Rugby Union will be using Parc Eirias as its base for the North Wales Rugby Academy.
The lake at Eirias Parc will also be significant to the success of the watersports centre as it could act as a training lake for watersports beginners in preparation for moving on to sea based activities at the centre.
MASTERPLAN
Commissioned by The Welsh Assembly Government and Conwy County Borough Council, the Masterplan guides and illustrates a new future for the town of Colwyn Bay. The challenge has been to reinvent Colwyn Bay as a 21st Century town with a renewed focus on its role as a seaside town and an attractive place to live, visit and invest.
Colwyn Bay now has a unique opportunity to capture the investment associated with a number of exciting projects including the new waterfront, Rugby Academy, town centre improvements as well as a focus on housing renewal issues in the town. These present many of the necessary ingredients for a new Colwyn Bay. The Masterplan brings all of these projects and initiatives together.
TOWN CENTRE
The town centre including the retail areas of Station Road, Penrhyn Road and the railway station are the subject of development projects that consolidate and strengthen what the town centre has to offer. The town enhancement proposals centre upon the Colwyn Bay railway station frontage. The new station development will incorporate a new square to hold public events. Parking facilities in the town centre will also be improved for increased parking for the use of the local population and visitors alike.
BAY LIFE+
For more information on the regeneration plans and development schemes being undertaken within Colwyn Bay, follow the links from the Bay Life+ Projects page on the Conwy County Borough Council’s website. www.conwy.gov.uk/baylife
See also, the Parc Eirias website at: www.conwy.gov.uk/parceirias
For more information on the Waterfront Project, please visit: www.conwy.gov.uk/colwynbaywaterfront
ENVIRONMENT JUNE 2011 Page 6 INITIAL CONCEPT
This section is provided for information and outlines the background and development of the Colwyn Bay Waterfront Project itself demonstrating the process Conwy County Borough Council has followed in developing the project into its current position.
The Colwyn Bay Waterfront Project comprises two principal elements. The first element is a need to provide renewed defences along the town’s entire coastal frontage and the second is to regenerate the town’s run down promenade.
The coastal defences remain largely unaltered since their construction during Victorian times; however, due largely to a substantial reduction in beach level over the last one hundred years, the coastal defences are now largely unfit for purpose.
With the onset of climate change, the position and integrity of the defences becomes more and more precarious. Recent coastal storms have resulted in damage to the existing sea wall and undermining of the foundations, all of which require costly repair works to maintain the function of the wall. These damage events are becoming more regular and more severe.
Undermined sea wall Damage to wall coping and handrails
The lowering of the beach has also resulted in a decrease in effectiveness of the wall to resist overtopping by the sea. Regular road closures now occur along Colwyn Bay’s promenade highway, causing disruption to users and affecting traffic flow within the town itself. Storms overtopping the sea wall also regularly cause damage to the promenade and highway finishes, resulting in a need for further costly repair work.
In order to address Colwyn Bay’s deficient coastal protection, Conwy County Borough Council has for a number of years worked to develop a strategy for the town in the future. This work has involved detailed investigation of trends, technical analysis of maintain, repair and improvement options and extensive consultation work to consider the wider impacts of a proposed improvement scheme.
The strategy was completed in 2008 which outlined a preferred option of improving the existing standard of defence by providing renewed coastal defences. The preferred improvement option identified at strategy stage included a combination of beach recharge options (with control structures to ensure its longevity) and linear rock revetment.
ENVIRONMENT JUNE 2011 Page 7
Concept plan for new Colwyn Bay coastal defences
A review of the coastal defence scheme during development of the strategy identified that while the proposed works would offer the town the long term protection and security it needed for its residents, businesses and infrastructure, its effectiveness would be limited. Without improvement of the promenade behind the new defences to provide a modern and attractive visitor attraction and draw in much needed visitors, the desired economic redevelopment of the town would not be fully achieved.
A Landscape Architect was subsequently appointed, through a design competition, to look in detail at the existing promenade and its features and develop a strategy and concept design for its redevelopment as an attractive and high quality visitor attraction.
Concept plan for Waterfront Hotspot Zones
Completion of this exercise identified the paramount importance of delivering the two major elements as a single coordinated project. It became clear that providing renewed coastal defences would have limited effectiveness without improvement of the promenade and that due to the current condition of the defences, improvement works along the promenade would be useless without provision of renewed coastal defences. Accordingly, the Colwyn Bay Waterfront Project was commenced, with a principal objective of delivering its two major elements in a coordinated manner.
ENVIRONMENT JUNE 2011 Page 8 PROJECT FUNDING
In 2008, Conwy County Borough Council was successful with two applications for Grant Funding to develop the Colwyn Bay Waterfront Project and to deliver the initial phases of the works. The funding secured was as follows:
£5 million allocation of Grant to commence Phase 1 Coastal Defence works. Grant Funding provided through the European Regional Development Fund with match funding provided by the Welsh Assembly Government.
£7.8 million allocation of Grant to carry out the environmental improvements along the promenade. Grant Funding provided through the European Regional Development Fund with match funding provided by the Welsh Assembly Government.
ENVIRONMENT JUNE 2011 Page 9 DEVELOPMENT OF WATERSPORTS HOTSPOT
During 2009 a detailed coastal modelling study was carried out to assess in detail the feasibility of various defence options and provide the base information required for the engineering design of proposed defence structures. This study supported the conclusions drawn during development of the strategy and allowed Conwy County Borough Council to define the coastal defence scheme to be developed as part of the Waterfront Project.
Visualisation of concept design for Watersports Hotspot area
Following confirmation of funding, the Authority’s Project Team undertook to define the prioritised coastal defence works to make use of the initial grant allocation. These works were defined as those involving and immediately surrounding the proposed terminal rock groyne at the eastern end of the proposed recharged beach. This area coincided with the proposed Watersports hotspot from the promenade concept design.
At the Project Board’s direction a review was also carried out at this stage to ensure that any engineering works undertaken as part of the coastal defence works were considered alongside any potential opportunities to provide promenade improvement works to maximise the success of the area.
The concept of the various hotspots to be provided along the promenade was to create focal areas of activity and interest at key strategic locations to break up the existing long, linear, frontage. The coexistence of the coastal defence groyne location and the Watersports Hotspot resulted in consideration of the potential of increasing the area provided within the hotspot. This will maximise future opportunities for features within the hotspot to support usage and activities.
Drawings of the blank canvas area of coastal defence and engineering works that are currently being constructed, are included with this information pack.
On top of this blank canvas, the new watersports centre will be constructed. The centre is due to be complete and open for business by summer 2012. At this stage there are concept designs from the Architect and a draft layout of the internal of the building. This is at this stage flexible and so detailed information provided from businesses requesting to lease space will be essential.
ENVIRONMENT JUNE 2011 Page 10 RETAIL UNIT DESIGN BRIEF
OUTLINE SPECIFICATION
As the retail the end user of the retail units is at this stage unknown to the designers. A number of assumptions have been made as to how the retail concession might manifest itself.
TYPE OF OFFERING
At under 280m² sales area, the proposed retail offering is categorised for legislative purposes as a small shop unit. Whilst the final usage of the retail unit is at the discretion of the local authority we have assumed that its seafront location and association with watersports will define it as a speciality leisure retail offer. It is also envisaged that the retail unit will need to appeal to an independent retailer, probably an individual or sole trader with less than ten branches. It is also desirable that the retail unit has the capacity to act as a stand-alone unit. This is desirable to meet the trader’s security and insurance needs, whilst also giving the trader the option of operating outside of the hotspots opening times if desired. The unit should have clear visibility from the road to attract casual trade and ideally have the option that the trader can link to the exhibition area of the hotspot for cross fertilisation of income generation from the café and watersports area. The retail unit will require ease of deliveries and servicing. This can be from either the front or the rear of the unit (a rear service area that links to the car park is desirable in this instance). LEASABLE AREAS There are two terms that it is advisable to be aware of when dealing with retail development: Gross leasable area (GLA): This is the total enclosed floor area occupied by a retailer. This covers the total rented space and includes stockrooms, staff facilities, circulation, and support areas. It is usually measured to outside of external walls and centre line between premises. Net Sales area (NSA): This is the internal floor space of a retail unit and is used for selling and displaying goods and services. It includes areas accessible to the public, e.g. counter space, checkout space and window and display space. Net areas are used to calculate the density of trading turnover (sales per m² or ft²).
RENTAL OPTIONS
Rents should be based on gross floor area measured in ft² or m². Three main types of rental agreement used are: Guaranteed rent: with minimum annual rent guaranteed by the tenant irrespective of sales. Percentage rent: based on a stated percentage of the gross sales of the tenant. Turnover lease: the rent being related to the actual gross turnover achieved by the tenant, based on the total trading receipts less stated allowable deductions. These should be subject to review every 4-5 years. Leases usually include the right to assign after an initial period (5 years) and may provide a landlords option to buy back. Premiums may be charged when leases are sold for premises in good trading positions with favourable lease and rent review conditions.
PLANNING GUIDELINES
The following guidelines are advised for the planning out of a small retail unit: Width 5.3-6m (mostly 5.4m) Depth 12m min (although 10m is only achievable in this instance, it is envisaged that the support areas will ruin down the side of the unit rather than the rear, allowing for an acceptable configuration).
ENVIRONMENT JUNE 2011 Page 11 Ceiling: 3.3-3.8m for sales area and 3.2-3.6m for non-sales area. Sales: The ratio of sales to ancillary space ranges from about 45:55 in small shops
Provision should also be made for the delivery of goods to the retail unit. This can either be from the front or the rear. The person responsible for the health and safety of the hotspot should determine whether deliveries are to be controlled and kept to certain off peak times of the day, or if random deliveries are to be allowed. Convenient access to a bin store from the retail unit will be required, preferably adjacent to the retail unit’s service access. As a general guide 10-15% of the net floor area of the unit shall be given over to staff welfare facilities and a further 5-8% shall be given over to offices. These could be included as part of the tenants shop-fit, although experience has shown that often small retailers prefer a ready-made unit including welfare facilities, which they can move into straight away and commence trading as soon as possible. It is recommended that provision is made for at least 1 WC and 1 whb within the unit.
SHOP FITTINGS
Interior layouts, fittings and design features depend on the nature and volume of goods sold. Therefore the shop fittings shall be designed and fabricated by the tenant and shall not be part of the project brief.
SHOPFRONT
Whilst signage and shopfront advertising will be part of the shop-fit by the proposed retailer, it advisable that the project team exercise some design control as part of their design briefing to the potential tenant. The design of the shop frontage, graphics and window display is a major consideration and could have a real impact on the appearance of the hotspot. We would advise preparing a shopfront design guide that ensures that all retailers respect the character and style of the hotspot in the design of their shopfront. This would be subject to approval from the project board prior to any approval by the local authority planning department.
ENVIRONMENTAL STANDARDS
Whilst the environmental design standards will be the responsibility of the shopfitter, it is generally recommended that the following standards should be taken as a minimum: Lighting: 500 lux standard service luminance concentrated over displays. Temperature: 18˚C Air infiltration (Changes/hour): 1 Ventilation allowance: 0.33 W/m³˚C
ENVIRONMENT JUNE 2011 Page 12 CONCEPT DESIGN OF NEW WATERSPORTS CENTRE
ENVIRONMENT JUNE 2011 Page 13 ARIEL VIEW OF CONCEPT WATERSPORTS CENTRE
ENVIRONMENT JUNE 2011 Page 14
CONCEPT PLAN OF INTERNAL LAYOUT OF WATERSPORTS CENTRE
ENVIRONMENT JUNE 2011 Page 15 WATERSPORTS CENTRE LEASE REQUIREMENTS
The following section defines what information you will be required to provide to express interest in leasehold opportunities within the new Watersports Centre as part of the Colwyn Bay Waterfront Project.
The information provided will ensure that your business will be included in an upcoming tender process for assigning leases. There will be a formal application process at the next stage of pre qualification as this is a public funded project and there must be a fair and transparent tender procedure in place.
This expression of interest is non binding for both parties and the information gathered will be used to gauge the type and level of business interest in the centre. The format of procurement will also be finalised upon receipt and analysis of the received expressions of interest.
Proposed facilities to be incorporated into the Watersports Centre are left to the discretion of Conwy County Borough Council; however will be based on evidence of need provided from the investigation of users described during this process.
The expression of interest for a leasehold within the Watersports Centre must include a definition of your business function and details of its products or services offered.
Length of lease required.
Please provide information and a rational of the amount of space your business will require to function appropriately and profitably within this Watersports Centre facility.
ENVIRONMENT JUNE 2011 Page 16