There’s a lot of ‘this time last year’ about as we pass the anniversary of a certain referendum and the political fallout that accompanied it. Here in the Cardiff BID office though there is a local and less complex one year on to look back on – a year has passed since the successful ballot to establish Cardiff BID. To be clear, the BID has not been in operation for a year, the company formally launched in December 2016 following the necessary processes for setting up the company, but back on June 1st 2017 the BID board, still the BID task group back then, were celebrating after successfully achieving a majority of votes from city centre businesses and securing £7.5million of investment over the coming five years.
A lot has happened in Cardiff since then as the city has readied itself for this fresh wave of investment and in the spirit of looking back down memory lane here are a few highlights
Completion of One Central Square
The first phase of the major redevelopment around Cardiff Central station has become fully operational, and fully let, over the months since July 2016. In fact Cardiff BID held their official launch in the slick new offices of Blake Morgan with key business stakeholders looked out over the brand new views created of the city, the slick new office space is home to many key Cardiff businesses such as S3 Advertising. The rest of the Central Square development continues to take shape with the ultra-modern new headquarters for BBC Cymru Wales emerging from behind the hoarding.
A Raft of Other Openings
One Central Square gets its own moment in the limelight as a major step on the path of a major project but those aren’t the only doors to have opened in Cardiff in the past year. Cardiff has said ‘croeso’ to The Hashery, Asador 44, The Seafood Shack, a new and improved Lush Spa, Gareth Bale’s Elevens, and 200 Degrees Coffee to name just a few. There’s plenty more going on behind the scenes in the city and if there is one thing a BID team know it is that an apparently empty shop is often nothing of the sort – keep your eyes peeled for more exciting developments such as the grand re-opening of the legendary Philharmonic soon.
The Roll Out of a Raft of Cardiff BID Projects
Of course we’re proud of the work that Cardiff BID has already accomplished be that: the fantastic team of Ambassadors out on the streets building relationships with businesses and helping out the public, the new taxi ranks we have established to support evening revellers, our sponsorship of existing Cardiff events such as the Swn Festival and the Iris Prize, setting the Castle Quarter on the path to superfast broadband with an investment matched by Openreach, the floral displays brightening up the city centre experience, keeping Christmas safe with Operation Mistletoe, offering free training to levy payers, delivering counter-terrorism advice, funding the excellent Cardiff Street Pastors and putting Cardiff on the map with press appearances on TV, radio and in print.
When you list them our achievements one after the other like that then it really does sound like we’ve been busy (because we have!) but rest assured there is much much more in the pipeline – there are plenty of projects we can’t say too much about for now but we’ve got plans involving keeping more money in your pockets, shifting spending around the city and bringing whole new levels of fun to the streets of Cardiff – keep your eyes peeled for more information and remember to follow us on Twitter @Cardiff_BID for all the latest.