The waterfront site of Helensburgh’s former swimming pool has gone on the market.
Bids are now being invited for the 1.38 acre site, which surveyors describe as being in “a prime waterfront location in an affluent town with a wide catchment area”.
The brochure for the listing says that the site will be fully cleared by Argyll and Bute Council prior to development, with demolition works of the former swimming pool nearing completion.
The town’s new £23million leisure centre opened in September last year, and work has taken place since to demolish the old swimming pool and clear the land - up to 2,700 square metres of which is allocated in Argyll and Bute’s Local Development Plan for ‘Class one retail use’.
Concerns have been expressed over the potential impact on Helensburgh’s small independent retailers of a supermarket being built on the site - believed by some to be the local authority’s preferred option.
Argyll and Bute Council’s depute leader, Helensburgh councillor Gary Mulvaney, promised at a public meeting in the town last month that “no single retailer will be on that site”.
Avison Young’s online brochure marketing the land states: “A rare opportunity to develop a prime waterfront site at the heart of Helensburgh, an affluent town in the west of Scotland.
“Argyll and Bute Council have invested heavily in the redevelopment of Helensburgh waterfront, improving the civic realm and together with a major local employer, Ministry of Defence, funding a major, state of the art, £23m swimming pool and leisure facility recently opened.
“The town’s former swimming pool building has been demolished, creating a valuable development site.
“Argyll and Bute Council is inviting proposals from interested parties to develop a scheme of high architectural quality which compliments the council’s investment in the surrounding area and provides permanent jobs for the local community.”
The brochure also includes an artists’ impression of what a new development on the site - which is located on the waterfront East Clyde Street - could look like, but adds that the drawings are ‘for indicative purposes only for testing the capacity of the site’.
The new leisure centre, which officially opened last year and is operated by liveArgyll, features a 25-metre main swimming pool and training pool, luxury health suite with steam room and sauna, a cafe and shop, fitness studios and a gym with panoramic views of the Clyde.
