On December 3, The City of Cardiff Council’s Cabinet will be updated on the progress of the Central Square Regeneration Scheme following the recent confirmation that BBC Wales will relocate to the area.

With the first building set to be occupied early in the New Year, the Council and the developer are moving forward with plans to deliver a new public square in front of Central Station and a new bus interchange to replace the old bus station. Cabinet will receive an update on the build program for the new bus interchange and the approach to deliver a state-of-the-art facility by December 2017.

Cllr Ramesh Patel, Cabinet Member for Transport and Sustainability at the City of Cardiff Council, said: “In recent months, the Council has been working hard with our partners to turn our Central Square masterplan in to a reality. In October Legal and General announced a £400m funding deal with Rightacres Property Ltd and last week BBC Wales announced the signing of an Agreement to Lease which confirms BBC Wales’s relocation from their current site in Llandaff to the purpose built headquarters in Central Square. These milestones allow us to move forward with the bus interchange and put arrangements in place to ensure it is delivered on time and on budget.

“The planning application for the new bus interchange will be managed in two parts; the first part will be submitted in December and will deal with the demolition of Marland House and the NCP car park and the excavation of the site in preparation for the construction of underground car parking. The second part of the application will be the detailed design of the new building which will be submitted in summer 2016. There is no delay as Marland House can’t be demolished until April. We therefore have some time that we want to use to make sure we get it right.

“Before any formal decision is made by Cabinet that commits the Council financially, a further report will be presented to Cabinet with details of the final costs and preferred funding approach.”

The timeline to build the new interchange was always determined by the earliest date that the existing tenancies at Marland House could be ended. Both the NCP car park and Marland House will be demolished at the same time between April and June 2016 – to minimise disruption, ensure health and safety and reduce costs.

Once both buildings have been demolished, there will be a period of 6 months to dig the foundations and carry out piling works. The whole mixed use building will then take 18-24 months to be fully completed. The Council is exploring possibilities with the developer on the potential to open the bus station in December 2017 before all works on the floors above the ground floor bus station are finished.