The Production Quarter

In the Options consultation that was undertaken in the spring of 2024, reference was made to the need to undertake a more fundamental review of the Newbridge Riverside policy area. This has now been completed and forms an important part of the evidence base to inform the future of this area. The ‘Production Quarter Masterplan’ involved many conversations with the existing businesses in the area and it seeks to continue to protect the important employment role of the area, whilst identifying opportunities to optimise the potential development capacity and deliver environmental enhancements.

The Production Quarter Masterplan identifies that there is significant scope to reimagine the economic role of this area and to intensify development opportunities benefitting the city’s economy and contributing towards wider ambitions in the Local Growth Plan, as well as ongoing work on the Bristol to Bath Growth Zone, a key component of WECA’s Growth Strategy. The Masterplan seeks to respond to the landscape, natural environment and heritage context of this location and generate an ambitious, deliverable, future scenario for how this current employment location could be reimagined. It is anticipating an imaginative and creative response to the untapped development potential of the area, that optimises the existing and planned transport infrastructure, set within an ecologically rich landscape that capitalises on its integral relationship with the river environment.

It is considered that this area has the potential to play an important, even iconic, employment role for the city, reflecting its global recognition, reputation, and history of innovation. Such an approach could complement the city’s central office and workspace core and provide a more diverse employment space offer for the creative industries sectors, advanced engineering sector (such as many of the existing anchor businesses), research and development, biosciences, and other sectors that have specific spatial or operational requirements.

The existing floorspace in the Production Quarter Masterplan area is approximately 50,000 sqm. Subject to existing sites being available for redevelopment, there is a theoretical potential to double this total floorspace to around 100,000 sqm. The ability to achieve this scale of change will require public sector intervention and collaboration with interested parties, as well as significant investment.

Note: This is a theoretical exercise providing initial estimates of potential capacity of sites throughout the Production Quarter. Landowners or businesses within the area have not been consulted specifically on this capacity assessment and much more analysis will be required. The GIA (gross internal areas) have been calculated by measuring the approximate GEA (gross external areas) achievable within the site and a notional 20% reduction assumed.