Vale Council revamps Barry’s Engine Room to attract new business

The Vale of Glamorgan Council has announced significant plans to develop The Engine Room, its business centre on Hood Road in Barry.

Proposals involve redesigning the main entrance to the building and enhancing communal spaces outside to include cycle parking and seating.

The existing public car park will be extended and resurfaced, new signage installed and landscaping work caried out.

Internally, the building will be decorated and reconfigured to boost its appeal.

In 2021, the Council leased the adjoining former Train Shed building to local fitness business Brawd in the first step of creating new units for local businesses at the site.

The Engine Room Transformation Project will create a total of 13 new business spaces and build on recent carbon reduction initiatives, including the installation of a living wall and a greener heating system.

Bronwen Brooks, Vale of Glamorgan Council Cabinet Member for Sustainable Places, said: “The Engine Room is a bright, modern, welcoming and flexible space for businesses to work and collaborate.

“This transformation project can help create a state-of-the-art business centre for the Vale and help attract the inward investment necessary for economic growth.

“After recent environmentally friendly innovations, this phase will make it even greener. That aligns with the Council’s Project Zero commitment to become carbon neutral by 2030.”

This transformation aims to meet the needs of a growing business community and ease parking pressure in the area.

Work is expected to take 20 weeks, with the new improved business units available to let from April.

It will be paid for using more than £1 million from the UK Government Shared Prosperity Fund and carried out by experienced local contractors Kingfisher Developments.

The Engine Room is located on Barry Waterfront’s Innovation Quarter (IQ), an area of former dockland that has seen extensive regeneration as part of a joint venture between the Council and Welsh Government.

This work has included:

• The award-winning conversion of the Pumphouse building into retail space.
• A Premier Inn hotel and Brewers Fayre restaurant locating to the area.
• West Quay Medical Centre opening.
• The Business Services Centre (BSC), which provides office and workspace, establishing itself.
• A development of property and commercial units known as the Goods Shed launching.
• The opening of a new primary school called Ysgol St Baruc.

Cardiff and Vale College are also set to build a multi-million-pound campus in the area.

Previously an IT skills centre, interest in the Engine Room has grown since the Council took over operation of the building and changed its use in 2015 and this work will help meet that demand.