Council land set to be sold for social housing beside Glasgow’s O2 Academy

Council-owned land near Glasgow’s O2 Academy is set to be sold to pave the way for social housing to be developed.

There are plans for a site, at the junction of Bedford Street and Eglinton Street, to be purchased by New Gorbals Housing Association. The deal would tie in with proposals for the former Glasgow Coliseum site, an old theatre, cinema and bingo hall which was demolished in 2009 following a fire.

Councillors will be asked on Thursday to approve removing the Bedford Street/Eglinton Street land from the Laurieston Transformational Regeneration Area — a development agreement between the council and Urban Union Ltd, a private sector partner, which has produced hundreds of new homes.

The site includes a derelict former local repair team depot. Members of the contracts and property committee will then be asked to support talks over an off-market sale of the area, and an adjoining parcel of council-owned land, to New Gorbals Housing Association (NGHA).

In a report, council officials stated: “It is proposed that the site at Bedford Street/Eglinton Street should be removed from the scope of the development agreement and, together with the adjacent site, sold to NGHA in a separate off market transaction.

“NGHA would then build a social rented housing development on the site and the adjacent site as part of the development of the former Coliseum site, under a design and build contract with Urban Union.”

Proposals for the Glasgow Coliseum land, including 64 new homes, were submitted in 2021 and are being considered by council planners. Documents submitted at the time stated NGHA owns “the site of the former Coliseum Theatre at 99-111 Eglinton Street and is working in partnership with Urban Union who control the adjoining site to the south”.

They added the “majority of the housing units will be developed for affordable housing by NGHA with the balance being for private sale by Urban Union”.

The Coliseum initially opened in 1905 as a theatre and was last used as a bingo hall until it closed in 2003.

Terms of the land sale will be reported back to councillors for approval, or approved by officials under delegated powers, depending on the value of the deal.