DISUSED parts of a high-profile building in a town’s high street have been brought back to life with the help of grant funding.
The ground floor of 82-84 St Teilo Street, Pontarddulais, had been vacant for around four years until the building was bought then transformed by Swansea-based company Our Health Pharma Investments.
Its new use – as community wellbeing centre Hyb SA4 – will help regenerate the area, bring local jobs and keep thousands of local residents fit and healthy.
Emjad Dubaissi, managing director of Medihub pharmacy, said: “I’m delighted that a range of grants has helped us transform this building and to boost the area’s regeneration.
“We acquired the building around 18 months ago and it’s great that the ground floor is already back is use, helping keep local people well and bringing them to the town’s main shopping street where they can make full use of local businesses.”
The first floor’s residential units remain in use.
Council cabinet member Robert Francis Davies said: “It’s great to see this excellent new health facility open in Pontarddulais.
“I’m pleased that the council has been able to help support the development with a number of grants.
“We offer funding support across a wide range of functions, including business and buildings, and the development of facilities such as Hyb SA4 shows that this system is working.”
The ground floor of the St Teilo Street building was once a Co-op store and, after subsequent use as another shop, fell into disuse.
Its new owners secured grant funding through Swansea Council. This totalled around £130,000.
It included £80,000 from the Welsh Government’s Transforming Town placemaking scheme and around £50,000 from the UK Government’s Shared Prosperity Fund.
Together with a six-figure sum invested by the business with the help of NatWest’s Swansea-based relationship manager Paul Dunne, these elements of support facilitated the transformation of the building, the installation of solar panels to help carbon reduction and some assistance to boost business growth.
Paul Dunne said: “NatWest was delighted to assist in a project making a positive difference to the local community.”
The buildings, thought to date from the 1970s, now house a Medihub Pharmacy, Dental Suite Swansea, and Evans and Hughes Opticians. There are plans to repurpose another part of the building to house a GP practice.
The pharmacy and opticians have expanded from smaller premises in the same street. The dental service is new to Pontarddulais, adding to the business’s Mumbles outlet.
Jayne Bryant, Wales’ Cabinet Secretary for Housing and Local Government, said: “I’m so pleased to see how our Transforming Towns Placemaking Grant has helped support the transformation of this vacant commercial building in Pontarddulais.
“Empty buildings are a wasted resource in our communities and it’s wonderful to see that this transformation will provide opportunities to small businesses and help stimulate economic growth in the area.”
For more information, visit the Swansea Council funding and grants webpage.
