SWANSEA Marina is unrecognisable from its industrial past but there is one plot of land where the wheels of progress seem to have ground to a halt.
A site off Trawler Road earmarked for a large student development and before that a hotel remains bare among a community of homes and businesses.
Land Registry records indicate the site sold for £850,000 plus VAT in 2009, £100,000 plus VAT in 2014, and £1.05 million in 2024. A fourth sale is due to be added to the records as the land has recently been bought again.
The plot is less than an acre and scattered with scrub and buddleia. But is in an enviable location by the River Tawe and clearly has development value.
Like all assets the cost of land varies – particularly when planning permission is granted or lapses – and sometimes projects don’t get off the ground.
For whatever reasons the original hotel plans didn’t come to fruition and the 287-bed student development scheme – approved by Swansea Council nearly a decade ago and renewed in 2021 – hasn’t got underway.
It is a bit of mystery for businesses nearby given where the site is. Craig Money, the director of South Wales Lettings on Trawler Road, said: “We’ve just come to the area three months ago and it’s a pleasure to be in Swansea Marina. It’s strange that no-one has taken the opportunity to use that land, particularly with the footfall here.”
A man working at another local business, who asked not to be named, said. “It’s a shame to have scrub land there, but if there’s nothing viable to build what do you do?”
Cllr Sam Bennett, who represents the city’s Waterfront ward, referred to it as “the big hole”. He said: “I know many in the community would welcome the ‘big hole’ being developed sympathetically for its neighbours, and believe any development could be an opportunity to provide more community space in the area.”
The maritime quarter which the site is part of was once a hub for coal and timber imports and then fish markets and packaging plants. Housing and commercial units gradually took their place, and hundreds of marina berths were created.
In 2001 commercial property magazine Estates Gazette reported that a London-based consortium had been chosen by Swansea Council to redevelop the largest remaining chunk of marina land “in a bid to revive the city’s status as one of the UK’s leading maritime centres”. The report said the 23-acre Swansea Point site, as it was known, had been vacant for two years since its owner Spontex closed a factory overlooking the sand dunes at Swansea beach.
In 2004 outline plans were approved for a hotel to fill the undeveloped parcel of Trawler Road land as part of the wider redevelopment of Swansea Point. In 2009 detailed planning consent for the five-storey, 164-bed hotel was granted to a company called Opco Ltd.
Athough some preliminary excavation work was said to have taken place at the hotel site, years passed with no further activity and the permission expired.
In 2016 a company called AMW Estates Ltd applied to build a four to six-storey development there for 287 students, along with three commerical units and undercroft parking for 43 cars. The council’s planning committee approved the application in December of that year, subject to conditions, although there were 57 objections.
This was a time of a purpose-built student accommodation gold rush following the construction of Swansea University’s Bay Campus off Fabian Way and plans by the University of Wales Trinity Saint David (UWTSD) to build a new waterfront campus across the River Tawe from Trawler Road in SA1.
UWTSD students began their education at the new campus in 2018 but there would be no accommodation block for them at Trawler Road.
According to Companies House records AMW Estates Ltd – first incorporated in 2014 with a registered address in Swansea – was dissolved in 2023 and had a registered address in Newcastle upon Tyne from 2020 onwards.
However, the Trawler Road project resurfaced in planning documents in September 2021 when a Jersey-registered company, Sancus (Jersey) Ltd, sought to extend the period of time in which to start it by a further five years.
A pressing issue back then was new flood risk planning guidance which was due to come into effect in December 2021 – and a new flood map showed most of the Trawler Road site would no longer be acceptable for residential use such as student accommodation because it was in a particular flood zone category.
Less than a month before the new flood risk guidance deadline – one that ended up being shelved at the very last minute by the Welsh Government – the council’s planning committee approved the five-year extension, meaning permission for the student development remains in place until late 2026.
Speaking in May this year Sancus (Jersey) Ltd said the Trawler Road site had been purchased from receivers the previous year and that it didn’t own the land. Nor did it have any current interest in the site, it said, or the potential development proposals.
Although Swansea is still home to thousands of students and demand for accommodation is strong, the higher education sector isn’t a buoyant as it was and other purpose-built student accommodation schemes have opened in the city.
Meanwhile, the delayed flood risk planning guidance finally came into effect in Wales in April this year following consultations and amendments.
Commercial property agents Savills described the Trawler Road plot as offering significant redevelopment potential and benefiting from consent for a 287-bedroom student scheme when it advertised it for sale this summer.
The sale price and the identity of the new owners haven’t been disclosed, but a Savills spokeswoman said she would pass on the Local Democracy Reporting Service’s contact details to see if they wished to talk about any plans they might have for the site.
Land can and does remain undeveloped and sold on. A planning consultant who hasn’t been involved in development plans for the Trawler Road site said: “From our experience it’s either a technical reason why it can’t be done or a financial reason. Land contamination is a common problem on brownfield land, or it could be too costly to connect to a sewer.”
The consultant, who asked not to be named, also said construction costs had soared over the last five years and that, in the case of Swansea, demand for accommodation among students was, in his view, stronger now for shared houses.
Boat yards and a fish wholesaler help retain a waterfront identity at the marina and it’s a great place for a stroll. You can see the sea, the River Tawe and South Dock in a matter of minutes. But for now at least the empty Trawler Road site looks like remaining just that.
