Dreams of hundreds of boats reviving Dundee’s struggling City Quay are to be realised as £4 million of long-awaited dock works are imminent.
The city council is poised to move forward with a three-year investment to restore the docks and revitalise the City Quay waterway.
The first stage of restoring the broken dock gate, a vital element of the promised marina, has already been approved, at a cost of £150,000 out of this year’s city development budget.
The work is part of a wider City Quay Marina project, which could see more than £4 million pumped into the area, if councillors approve the costs for further works today.
The whole project will cost a total of £4,038,000, according to Dundee’s capital plan, and this would come in three yearly instalments.
Following on from £1,150,000 allocated for this year’s budget (2015/16), £1,850,000 in 2016/17, and £1 million in 2017/18 is being proposed by the council.
The news has been welcomed by Alison Henderson, chief executive of Dundee and Angus Chamber of Commerce, who said it could bring hundreds of boats into the area.
She said: “The council going to pay for the lock repairs will allow boats in and out of the docks. We could be talking about hundreds of boats when it is finished.”
She added: “City Quay has not been without its challenges. In its early days there were lots of retail units down there but that’s really not born out.
“The retailers put their hopes in the promise of a marina, which never came.”
She said that while shoppers found the site too far from the city centre, a restaurant district could thrive with the proximity of the Apex Hotel.
Ms Henderson continued: “Porters opened up recently and seem to have been doing well. Being a restaurant and bar and doing coffee is proving popular.”
The huge success of the Arbroath marina shows the demand for docking space on the east coast.
Dundee City Council said the contract for the design and building of the new dock gates was awarded to Mott MacDonald after tenders from four specialist consultants were offered.