Bangor seafront revamp now to cost £100m: Bill for decades-delayed Queen's Parade project doubled in last six years, says councillor
The cost of a decades-delayed rebuild of Bangor city centre has doubled in the last six years, and will now cost at least £100m.
That’s according to one local politician, who says soaring building costs will have massively increased the price of the project since it was estimated in 2019, and the local council now needs to work with the conglomerate behind it to make sure all the money for construction comes in.
Work on an overhaul of the Queen’s Parade area began on-site this month. Supposed to turn around the fortunes of the Co Down city’s struggling seafront, the revamp has been on the cards since the 1990s but has been a thorn in the side of residents as ideas came and went for an area that at one point was voted Northern Ireland’s biggest eyesore in a TV poll.
The version now under way was originally priced at £50m, though after winning money from the UK government’s Levelling Up Fund the budget went up to £60m.
Councillor Chris McCracken argues the true cost may now be north of £100m, meaning the council needs to spring into action to make sure developers Bangor Marine can get all the private investment they need to build it.
Mr McCracken’s day job is in urban regeneration, meaning he knows whereof he speaks; he’s the managing director of Belfast’s Linen Quarter Business Improvement District, and has many years of experience in the practicalities and costs involved in large-scale city projects such as Queen’s Parade.
Speaking at an Ards and North Down Council meeting, he said: “That £50m figure needs to be updated. Six years have now gone on, construction inflation is a minimum of 50% and quite possibly more; by the time this project gets under way more seriously, you could be looking at £100m investment. If Bangor Marine change or adjust their plans as they go, it could be even greater.”
He added that some residents mistakenly believe that “£50m is sitting in an account somewhere”, when in fact the money is “private capital that needs to be raised”.
He called on the council to get in bed with Bangor Marine and jointly get money from investors that will cover the full £100m cost of the project.
Acknowledging there has been “a lot of damage done to public confidence from the long delays”, Mr McCracken also said both Bangor Marine and the council would be meeting to make sure videos, photos and updates are sent out to keep residents up to date on the project’s progress.
The Queen’s Parade project’s first phase will see a large seafront car park demolished to make way for a new pedestrian-friendly area with green lawns, an event space, a children’s play area, and food and drink kiosks.
Apartments, retail and office space follow on the main body of the site, with a final phase constructing a cinema and tourist draw ‘destination building’. The project is supposed to be complete by late summer 2028.
Many different designs and ideas have been put forward for Queen’s Parade over the decades. Buildings on Bangor’s main seafront were demolished in the early years of this century to make way for the revamp, but until this month little has been done with the site.