Renfield Street student flats and co-living plan approved

We previously reported the proposals for the former Herald and Glasgow Times offices, with councillors now giving the green light to the development

The applicant, MRP 200 Ren Ltd, part of construction firm McAleer & Rushe, intends to restore a C-listed fountain and reposition it at the heart of a new public square.

Plans include 381 beds in a purpose-built student accommodation block and 167 units in a 12-storey co-living development — where residents have a private bedroom but share communal facilities like kitchens.

(Image: GCC Planning)

A council report stated the development of the site layout and design has been “heavily influenced by the site’s major constraint”, the Subway tunnels running through the site, with taller buildings placed either side of this.

Commercial space that “could include food and drink, leisure or community offers” is also set to be provided. Councillors on the city’s planning committee approved the scheme on Tuesday.

Cllr John Daly, Conservative, backed the application as the properties are “convertible”, so could be changed from student accommodation in the future if required.

(Image: Colin Mearns)

He added the “role of this committee is to make sure we stand by guidelines and regulation and government policy”, but councillors also have “a duty to our city to make sure that we are providing housing, short-term, long-term, for rent and for purchase, and also to make sure that our city centre has a viable future”.

(Image: Colin Mearns)

“There are plans here to bring young people to the city, who will spend, who will enjoy their life in Glasgow. I think that’s all to the betterment for Glasgow,” he said.

“It’s for that reason that I am happy to support this particular development, amidst the broader concerns about purpose built student accommodation.”

Council officials had reported it is considered the use of the site for student accommodation “would not have a detrimental impact upon the wider community”.

They found the student flats can be “absorbed within the locality without having a harmful impact upon the maintenance of a sustainable community”.

The applicants had argued the plan was an “opportunity to provide professionally managed student housing at the right location, which will benefit from ongoing regeneration in the local area”.

Cllr Ken Andrew, SNP, who chairs the committee, said: “I think the open space that has been proposed, the preservation and protection of the listed fountain, gives the top of Renfield Street a focus that it has never had before.”

He added it makes the “transition through from Renfield Street to Cowcaddens Road much improved”.

The newspaper offices were built in 2000 but have been partially vacant since May 2021, when the applicant purchased the building. 

Plans stated: “Despite substantial investment (circa £400,000) and efforts to lease the vacant floors, the building fell into full vacancy in May 2024.”

They add the construction of student accommodation nearby, the Citizen M and Maldron hotels, along with the comprehensive redevelopment of the Theatre Royal have all been completed, and this development will “complete the regeneration of this urban site”.

The William Annan Memorial Fountain — a Category C listed structure — will be “carefully restored and repositioned”.