The £130 million Eden Project in Dundee will be “transformational” for not just the city, but the whole of Scotland.
That is the view of Dundee City Council leader John Alexander, who spoke about the project at an event in the city on Wednesday.
Blair Parkin, chief experience development officer at Eden Project, was among the speakers at Scotland’s Towns Conference at the Apex City Quay Hotel.
He outlined more details of the project, which will create a visitor attraction at a former gasworks on East Dock Street.
Mr Parkin said one of the three venues will include a “unique” building made out of re-used materials.
He described it as “the largest publicly visitable building made out of reused construction materials” in the UK, and possibly Europe.
He added: “We’re working with the construction industry and demolition industry to help us build this building entirely out of things that have come from somewhere else.”
The budget is currently estimated at £130m, which will likely rise.
Funding will come from a mixture of private and public cash. After the build, the model is for Eden Project Dundee to be self-sufficient.
Dundee ‘ideal home’ for Eden Project
Mr Parkin described the process so far as “amazing” and said the team was drawn to Dundee after initial discussions elsewhere.
He said: “We also looked more broadly than Dundee initially. The first conversations about Dundee came off the back of work we’d done in Edinburgh and Glasgow.
“It quickly became apparent that Dundee would be an ideal home for Eden in Scotland.”
We previously reported the multi-million-pound project would take two years to build.
It is hoped it will open before the end of 2026.
Mr Parkin said several consultation events had taken place recently, and the plans were being refined to reflect the feedback.
“We’ve just finished seven co-creation events so it is being shaped by the people of the city,” he said.
Planning permission for the project, which is expected to create up to 250 new jobs, will be submitted imminently.
Eden Project Dundee ‘visionary’
Meanwhile, Mr Alexander described the scheme – anticipated to attract 500,000 visitors a year – as “visionary”.
He said: “Dundee is a city very much on the move.
“We have set ourselves some ambitious targets and are driving forward to create a dynamic city.
“At its heart, Eden Dundee is about wellbeing, connectivity, the environment and opportunity.
“This is going to be transformational for not just Dundee, but for the whole of Scotland.
“We’re retaining parts of the original site as we tell the story of where the city was 200 years ago and where it will be in 200 years, looking through the lens of the environment, the economy and bringing it to life in an enhanced opportunity. It is quite visionary.”
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