I was delighted by the news that more investment is being made into Dundee’s City Quay area.
The £3 million project, announced earlier this month, will create a new multi-purpose events space, complete with a visual effects technology lab spearheaded by Abertay University.
The centre, in the Water’s Edge building, will advance our tech industries to another level.
And it’s particularly heartening to see the focus on Dundee’s quayside. Because, compared to other parts of the city, this area has long felt underfunded and overlooked.
Dundee’s City Quay is a place that holds some fond memories for me. For a lot of Dundonians I expect.
It was where I ran with the Queen’s Baton ahead of the Commonwealth Games in 2014, and where I made visits to HMS Unicorn as a kid.
It’s a fascinating corner of the city, and it’s a shame it’s been left to feel neglected as other parts of Dundee have blossomed.
City Quay activity is a welcome step for Dundee
I visited the area recently after a meeting and was sad to find it deserted.
But this new investment, from Chroma Ventures, headed by Chris van der Kuyl, gives us an opportunity to bring more life into the area and hopefully spark more opportunities in the future.
Until now, the City Quay revival plan has been focused on housing, with new apartments being built opposite HMS Unicorn.
That’s great. It’s making more properties available. However, the Victoria and Camperdown Docks are desperately in need of attention too.
It has been great to see small signs of a revival of Victoria Dock, thanks to the Wild Shore Dundee water sports centre which opened in 2017.
I’ve written previously about how Dundee needs to seize the opportunities of the cruise liner market.
And Eden Project will, hopefully, play a crucial role in the redevelopment of the docks in the years to come.
However, plans for a marina don’t seem to have progressed much.
And this is where one of the main goals of the ongoing Dundee waterfront regeneration – to “reconnect Dundee back to the water” – could really start to take shape.
City Quay and the Tay can connect Dundee to a world of opportunity
Outdoor Explore’s Dundee Tay Estuary kayak tour is one of the few activities at the moment which make full use of the River Tay.
But there’s so much more we could be doing with this amazing resource.
Remember the plans to run water taxis from Dundee to Perth? They didn’t come to much either. But imagine City Quay as a base for a water taxis terminal, connecting the city with Fife and Perth.
Cities across Europe and around the world can do it, so why not Dundee?
We need to seize the opportunity of what we can do at City Quay, as well as on the Tay itself.
By connecting back to the water, we can build on Dundee’s promise as the city continues to evolve.
