The development of Canolfan Pentre Awel is transforming a former industrial site on the Llanelli coast into an aspirational centre for community collaboration, healthy living and wellbeing. Gleeds was appointed in June 2021 to manage the build contract on Zone 1, supported by design and planning expert Arup.
The first project of its scale in Wales, Pentre Awel forms a key part of the Swansea Bay City Deal portfolio. Funded by the UK and Welsh governments together with public and private sector investors, the scheme is being delivered by Carmarthenshire County Council.
Canolfan, the first phase of the Pentre Awel project combines:
- Community healthcare services – including a skills centre and rehabilitation unit
- flexible offices and research space for life sciences, health, wellbeing and social care businesses
- state-of-the-art leisure amenities, including a 600m² gym, 25m pool, sports hall and hydrotherapy pool provision
- a central meeting space
- outdoor spaces for walking and cycling.
Developed on brownfield land, the site was historically home to a brickworks company, followed by the South Wales Tinplate Works. Determined to bring the land back into use, the client states that Gleeds’ understanding of how to develop former industrial sites was hugely helpful in moving the scheme forward.
The finished design is based on the concept of ‘bringing the outside in’, with elements that reflect the natural surroundings, including large windows, open spaces, and wooden panelling in the central space.
Overcoming challenges
The build stage coincided with a period of high inflation, making delivery against the fixed budget a struggle. We identified value engineering opportunities that achieved cost savings totalling £3 million post-contract, with a £400,000 saving alone generated from switching to a local supplier for topsoil and subsoil.
Stakeholder management also brought significant challenges. Canolfan Pentre Awel is a single building, but one which had multiple uses, users, and briefs to manage. This meant the pre-construction services agreement (PCSA) period included multiple reviewable design data (RDD) processes. Gleeds effectively aligned the different contractors to ensure the design met functional requirements before construction began.
Our innovative use of BIM (Level 2) expedited the RDD process, allowing Pentre Awel’s end users to orientate around a digital 3D model of the building, and detect potential issues.
We managed the development of O&M (operation and maintenance) manuals and As-Built drawings in the close-out phase via the Zutec cloud-based software platform. This helped to deliver an efficient handover and will support the client in effectively managing the asset into the future.
Gleeds is now set to commence work on three fit-out projects, and a major new phase of work on assisted living accommodation at Pentre Awel.
