It was once dubbed Swansea's ghost shopping centre. Practically empty, a walk around its deserted, echoing corridors was a depressing experience.
These days, If you're looking for a full day out where there's something that will appeal to the entire family, it's hard to imagine many better places in Swansea these days. Whether you want to catch a film, go food shopping, have a meal or a coffee, go bowling, wander through a tropical zoo or immerse yourself into an adventure park experience - all are within a stone's throw of each other.
Big name attractions fill the city centre destination, with countless reasons to visit for those young and old. But roll the clock back several years, and it was completely unrecognisable. When these pictures were taken in 2015, the centre was dying a slow death, with little reason for anyone to visit.
READ MORE: The story of Parc Tawe in Swansea
The Odeon was still there, along with Toys R Us, Plantasia, and a few other outlets, but to get to them meant walking through empty corridors devoid of any joy.
In 2017, Multi-national real estate company Hammerson moved in and completely refurbished Parc Tawe, in what was said at the time to be a move to make it a "leading, contemporary and attractive retail destination".
But it never lived up to its hype. Ten out of 20 units were left empty for many years, including big name departures such as Toys R Us and Mothercare, creating a distinctly empty feeling as you walked around the site, and footfall suffering as a result.
Some feared the retail park might never reclaim the identity it first had when it was built in the late 1980s and 1990s, where it was known and loved for popular fixtures such as the old UCI cinema, which later became Odeon, the mainstay bowling alley, and Plantasia, as well as Joe's Ice Cream, Toys R Us and Dinky Donuts, the last of which used to fill the corridors with a sweet, sugary smell. Get Swansea stories straight to your inbox with our newsletter.
That was until the end of 2019, when a far brighter future for the retail park shone on the horizon. Centurion Tawe Ltd, run by two entrepreneurs based in Swansea and Cardiff, stepped forward to take over the running of the park, after Hammerson took a “strategic decision” to exit the retail parks sector. The new owners indicated from the off that they had a “firm interest” in a number of the empty units by big retail names, and they have held true to their promise.
The first major announcement was the arrival of Aldi - creating a long-awaited replacement for the huge unit left vacant after the departure of Toys R Us. And it was to be just the beginning. Soon there followed big name adventure experiences such as Ninja Warrior UK and Flashpoint, together with restaurants such as India India, Double Zero and Dirty Fries.
The retail element was also bolstered, with the likes of Barnardo's and Sports Direct joining its ranks. As well as filling up empty units, they have nicely complemented the existing big name tenants, such as Odeon, Tenpin, Plantasia, Costa, Denny's, Iceland and B&M.
The transformation is down to the vision of the two entrepreneurs who have a "vested interest" in seeing the retail park flourish. Their investment has now reached seven figure sums, and at weekends, 12,000 vehicles enter the car park each day to visit the attractions, something considered a "very obvious increase" to how it was previously.
Whilst they prefer to stay working behind the scenes, there's two people at the forefront of the operations day to day who are ensuring its continued success. Estates manager Adam Gibbons and financial controller Jane Rice were brought in to play an integral part in its future from the offset, and shared the secret of what had made it such a remarkable success.
Mrs Rice said: "The two men behind the site are entrepreneurs. They are retired and live locally, one from Swansea, one from Cardiff, but they have an exceptional eye for possibilities and can see the future beyond anyone else I've ever worked with.
"The plan was always to make the site more of a destination, particularly because Odeon and Tenpin were already here, so it was about building on that. We wanted a park where you could drive down here and spend the day, it is very much a leisure park.
"I travel around quite a lot to different retail parks around the country and I don't see anything quite like this, it seems quite unique to me. The kids could go to Ninja Warrior for a few hours, they might then go and watch a film or go bowling, and they could wander and go and be happy all day.
"As a mum with two young kids at the time when we took this on, I could come here, set them up somewhere, go and do an hour's shopping, pick them back up, and off we go. It's great. The fact you can safely leave your child doing an activity that they are going to have a blast doing, and go and do your shopping at the same time, there's not many places like that."
Mr Gibbons added: "The owners are very passionate about it, and it's not about financial gain, it's the possibility of what they can do, which is evident from what's happened since December, 2019. It's about the impact they can have and the change they can make. They definitely have a passion and a vested interest in seeing the site do well, and actually shop here themselves.
"We don't have one anchor tenant, we have quite a few. They are all fairly independent and standalone. There are big names here, and credit has to go to the management for that. Our owners met with the tenants personally, and from day one there's that personal connection between owner and tenant, and that seems to have really gone in their favour.
"As part of that process, what they say they're going to do, they'll do it. They say this is what it's going to be, and in a blink of an eye, they do it. It is a benefit of it being run locally."
The pair discussed what they thought were pivotal moments in the changing fortunes of the retail park. Mrs Rice said: "Aldi was definitely a game changer, it was a real positive for us. Barnardo's really took off too. Your vision of a charity shop is normally a small high street store, but it's so far removed from your normal vision from a charity shop."
Mr Gibbons added: "Flashpoint and Ninja Warrior offer something really unique to Swansea. Sports Direct was a good addition, it is what they call a 3.0, so there's different standards of store they have across the country, and they are quite proud of this one, and almost want to show the lights so you can see it from space.
"Moving around, you've got Odeon which is a fantastic tenant to have, and you've also got Tenpin. Our main goal here, as well as making it a destination and a venue, was increasing footfall.
"There were many ways we could have done that, but long term, it was about filling units. It's very rare you walk the site and don't see something new, that's how quick it is changing here and they're not showing any signs of slowing down yet. It's always nice hearing comments from people I know along the lines of, have you seen this, have you done that - it's always nice to get those comments."
Plans are imminent to fill Parc Tawe's final vacant unit, with discussions entering their final stages. And there is also consideration going forward for plans to create additional business, but not at the risk of overdeveloping the site.
Mrs Rice said: "I walk the site, and it's very rare you don't hear 'Oh that's good isn't it', or 'Oh we'll have to try that' or 'Oh let's bring the kids here'. Even in bad weather you hear some uplifting comments. It's been an absolute pleasure and an honour to be part of something since day one of the transformation. It's a feeling of pride."
Mr Gibbons added: "There has been six tenants in two years. You think, what will the next year bring? We'll be putting on seasonal community events promoting what we have. After we get past the development stage there's going to be more focus on improving what we have and that's the next phase. When you do take a step back, you only have to stand on the boundary and look at it and you think, wow. And they're not stopping."
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