Work to create a 5,000 capacity arena and conference centre, new homes, offices, a hotel and a multi-storey car park has taken another step forward.
Images of the proposed Ashton Gate Sporting Quarter(Image: Ashton Gate)
Work to create a new ‘Sporting Quarter’ next to Ashton Gate with a 5,000 capacity arena and conference centre, new homes, offices, a hotel and a multi-storey car park has taken another step forward.
Bosses at Ashton Gate have put a new application to Bristol City Council planners, asking them to sign off on their ‘phasing and delivery strategy’, which will mean the demolition of the now empty buildings between the stadium and nearby Winterstoke Road can begin.
The application and its sign off is an important trigger for work to begin on the major project, which will see a larger new home created for the Bristol Flyers basketball team, and the biggest indoor arena venue for events, conferences and concerts in Bristol.
The Sporting Quarter was given planning permission by city councillors back in August 2023, along with 510 new homes to be built on land next to Ashton Vale – where Bristol Sport owner Steve Lansdown originally wanted to move the stadium to around 15 years ago – which will be renamed Longmoor Village.
The plan has faced delays – it took more than 18 months to be decided on by Bristol City Council, and then faced more than a year of delays after a local waste firm tried and failed to take the council to a judicial review over the plan to build houses at Longmoor Village.
The council gave overall planning permission, but set conditions to Lansdown’s Esteban Investments company, including the finer details of things like the changes to the road layout on Winterstoke Road, and the method and order in which the existing buildings would be demolished and the entire development would be built.
That phasing and delivery strategy was drawn up in February, and now Esteban Investments has submitted an application for those conditions to be removed because they have been met.
The strategy gives an insight into how Ashton Gate will change over the next few years, as the Sporting Quarter begins to take shape.
The first phase will see the demolition of the former Wickes DIY store and the buildings on the other sites that make up the Sporting Quarter land. That land will be cleared, and this work is expected to start in the New Year.
Part of that work will see Colliters Brook, which currently runs between the site and Marina Dolman Way next to the stadium, covered over to protect it from the development next door.
Once the site is cleared, the second phase will see the southern end of the site nearest Wedlock Way and the South Bristol Retail Park be developed first, with the multi-storey car park nearest KFC, with the sports and convention centre and hotel next to it.
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There will also be works to the existing car park between the stadium and Halfords, and ‘public area works’ on Marina Dolman Way.
The third phase will see works to the existing stadium car park off Ashton Road to the north of the stadium, while the fourth phase will see the two blocks of residential flats built, one next to the Ashton Road car park, and the second next to Winterstoke Road. The final, fifth, phase will see the new office block built next to Winterstoke Road.
“Due to the size and scope of the Sporting Quarter masterplan, the project is split into a number of phases to ensure successful delivery,” a spokesperson for Esteban Investments told Bristol City Council. “The following is the proposed phasing strategy for the entirety of the Sporting Quarter. This proposed phasing may be subject to change through the development process, and any adjustments would be formalised through submission of a revised plan,” they added.
The Sporting Quarter plan was backed by city leaders and representatives of the hospitality industry across Bristol, as providing a major boost to Bristol’s venues and visitor capacity.
“These plans for the Sporting Quarter were first unveiled in 2018 and we’re delighted that things can start moving forward and some top-class new facilities can be created in the south of the city,” the then chair of the Bristol Hoteliers Association, Raphael Herzog, said back in November.