Former Royal Mail and Brains offices in Cardiff to become gym and padel courts

The buildings in Llanishen, which are now vacant, have been called ‘impossible to let’ in their current state

Former Royal Mail offices and a brewery distribution site in Cardiff will be completely transformed into a new sports facility.

Cardiff-based investment firm Avalon Glen has been granted permission by Cardiff Council to turn the now vacant offices, surrounded by Ty Glas Avenue, Earlswood Road and Parc Ty Glas in Llanishen, into a gym and padel courts.

Planning documents attached to the application say the site, once used by the Royal Mail and Brains as a distribution centre, is currently impossible to let in it’s current state and that the owner making a considerable investment to change its prospects.

As well as the gym and padel courts, the site will include a reception, cafe and other associated facilities.

Planning documents read: “The proposals will represent an increase in the visual quality of the built environment in this location and arrest visual decay by repurposing and reinventing buildings in a more visually pleasing manner.”

The site will consist of four indoor padel courts and three outdoor courts.

Padel is a racket sport that blends elements of both squash and tennis. It’s usually played in doubles on an enclosed court with players using solid rackets and lower-pressure balls.

Scoring is the same as tennis. The court is similar, with it being divided in the middle by a net and containing service boxes.

However, a padel court is smaller than a tennis court.

The new scheme in Llanishen also proposes to demolish the front office block at the site as well as part of the existing warehouse.

Planning documents state: “The proposal retains a good core of employer uses on this tired, outdated employment site.

“The current facility is impossible to let in its current state and the owner is hereby making a considerable investment to change its prospects by sustainable use of the buildings in a new way and adding a modicum of ‘other’ uses.”

A commercial aspect will be retained for the site with smaller business spaces being available.

The number of parking spaces for the sports aspect of the site will remain the same but will be “more efficiently laid out” and contain more disabled spaces.

According to the application, the development will bring a “breadth of jobs that the current warehouse does not”.

It continues: “The creation of smaller business units rather than one large one sits well with Cardiff’s excellent ‘high growth of firms’ ethos and allows for places for start-ups to thrive and grow.”