Three contenders emerge for Glasgow Games village

Quintain, Kier Residential and Urban Splash have emerged as possible developers for Glasgow’s Commonwealth Games village.

The £245m scheme, on the banks of the river Clyde, will include 1,500 residential units. Kier Residential and Quintain are understood to have expressed an interest in developing it.

Sources close to the scheme said Urban Splash’s plans for a 585-home development at nearby Bellgrove Street in east Glasgow could be used as a template for the village.

Urban Splash is one of four consortiums bidding to redevelop the 5.2ha former abattoir site. The council wants the development to showcase architectural and environmental innovation.

A source said: “The council thought it was an innovative brief and it may well form the template for the 2014 village.”

Proposals have also been discussed for temporary housing at the village. Among the ideas are floating houses and tent-like structures.

Outline planning permission for the village will be sought as soon as Glasgow’s 2014 delivery authority is appointed. The council expects a chairman and chief executive to be appointed by February.

Instability in the housing market is not a concern, says the masterplanner RMJM Architects.

Paul Stallan, the firm’s design director, said: “Volume housebuilders are being frightened out of the city centre, but the village won't be 40-storey towers. It’s good, solid, stock housing and there's a lot of interest in it.”
Make Architects is understood to have won the contract to design the handball venue for the 2012 Olympics in London.