The man leading the development of Eden Project Dundee has said hard work lies ahead as he outlines its next steps after securing planning permission.
Councillors voted unanimously to approve the eco visitor attraction at the former gasworks in East Dock Street last week.
A separate planning application for a bridge spanning the road and railway line to the venue is expected to be approved imminently by council officers under delegated approval.
Blair Parkin, chief experience development officer at Eden Project, said it has taken four years from the idea of Eden Project Dundee to the “milestone” of planning permission.
He expects reaching the stage of a finished development will take roughly another six years.
He said: “We’ve been welcomed with huge enthusiasm in Dundee, but we have never taken anything for granted.
“We have tried to develop the project in the right way, by holding a lot of engagement events.
“I think the way big projects can go wrong is when they are imposed on a city. Then people wonder in 10 years’ time when they have not been a success.
“That’s not who we are. We want to make sure people in Dundee can see themselves in the Eden Project.”
What’s next for Eden Project Dundee?
Mr Parkin said Eden Project will shortly receive the planning conditions for the development from Dundee City Council which it will then work through “line by line”.
It will then work with an external company to establish a more exact budget for the project, previously estimated at around £130 million. It should be able to announce in the autumn.
This will form the basis of a fundraising campaign which will require support from UK and Scottish Governments, philanthropists and corporate sponsors as well as Eden possibly taking on some debt.
Mr Parkin said: “The planning conditions will inform our development timescale and our cost.
“If anything moves the cost equation beyond the amount of money we think we can raise, then we’ll have to go back and design it again.
“We’ve already and have been talking to the private investment and the philanthropic community for a long while.
“Once we have a cost and a timescale we will start those conversations on the big fundraising chunks.
“Whether we can raise all of the money in the timescale we hope will depend on both the political landscape and the economic landscape.”
Developing the site
Work is under way by the owners of the site, National Grid and SGN, on getting it ready for development.
This involves levelling ground and moving some infrastructure, a process expected to last 18 months to two years.
Planning permission has been granted for three buildings on the site, including one making use of the existing gas holder.
Mr Parkin said the content within the three buildings on site will be developed over the next two years through more engagement events.
He said: “We need to start defining the stories in the buildings. We have the thematic ideas but we’ll need about two years to really develop the content.
“Like we’ve done with the buildings, we will put interest groups together.
“Meanwhile, the school engagement programme is going to get ramped up quite significantly after the summer holidays.
“We will also progress our work creating the nine new guilds of Dundee, which will also help develop the site’s content.
“We think building the venues will take around two years. That’s about a four year journey to getting started if everything goes well.”
Energy discussions power up
The Eden team is also considering how to power the site using decarbonised energy. Mr Parkin said the venue is in talks with power companies and the Scottish Government about this.
He adds: “We are designing everything to use the minimum amounts of energy.
“But we have to have life support systems for the plants, and a comfortable environment for people who visit.
“We will micro-generate as much as we can on site and then all the other energy that we need or use needs to be fully decarbonised.
“It’s quite a big strategy we’re working on at the moment. We are hoping to ultimately showcase some new ways of powering facilities at scale.”
The Eden Project, which has local partners in the form of Dundee City Council, University of Dundee and the Northwood Charitable Trust, is also planning to open an office in Dundee this year.
It expects to start to add a handful of local members of staff as the school engagement programme expands.
Mr Parkin adds: “We delighted to pass the milestone of planning permission – but we have a lot of work ahead.”
Conversation