Financial considerations aside, proposals to provide Brighton with a yacht harbour on an otherwise unsheltered part of the south coast always had appeal. But whereas boats must have sheltered water, it seems somewhat perverse to have dedicated expensively reclaimed land to car-parking.
This car park for about 250 cars occupies about a 30th of the 127 acres enclosed by the Marina's breakwaters. These 127 acres were provided in 1980 at a cost said to be in the order then of £50M. This equates to £170M today. Each car park space therefore cost about £23,000 at today's prices.
To make the Marina a viable economic proposition it was always planned to introduce revenue-producing activities additional to yachting, but something less mundane than a superstore and car park might have been hoped for.
Editor's note: Since the date of this post there has been a proposal to build apartment blocks over the car park, even including a roof-top link to the cliffs, but this hasn't so far come to fruition.
In lean times, before the redevelopment and the opening of the Hotel Seatle, 70% of marina visitors came for the supermarket!
ReplyDeleteI'm sure you are right Jason. It would be interesting to know what the proportion is now with all the extra attractions, the restaurants, cinema and sports facilities.
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