Room for growth: why investors should check-in to Glasgow's east end

By Lisa Miller, innovation and engagement manager at Clyde Gateway NEXT week, I'll travel to Manchester with a proposition for some of the UK's biggest hospitality investors: come and build a hotel in Dalmarnock. For some, that invitation may still require a mental adjustment. But perceptions of Glasgow's east end have not always kept pace with the reality on the ground. At Clyde Gateway, we have spent years laying the foundations for regeneration: remediating land, investing in infrastructure and public realm, delivering new homes and creating employment space for attracting high-growth businesses. Today, Dalmarnock is one of the busiest areas of construction activity in the city. New homes are being built, businesses are arriving and a growing innovation area is taking shape. The question is no longer what might happen here, but what comes next. That is why I'll be attending the Annual Hospitality Conference in Manchester to seek expressions of interest in CityWorks, our proposed 140-room hotel. We once thought a hotel might be one of the first developments on the site. We now see it as the final piece of the Dalmarnock jigsaw: a hospitality anchor within a growing ecosystem of businesses, homes, amenities and world-class sporting and entertainment venues. And there is evidence to support that opportunity. Independent analysis of hotels within two miles of the site found occupancy reached almost 78 per cent last year, while demand has grown faster than supply since 2022. Yet hotel provision remains heavily concentrated in Glasgow city centre and to the west, leaving the east of the city comparatively underserved. For an investor or developer, that creates a rare opportunity: to establish a significant hospitality presence in a growing part of Glasgow where the market has yet to catch up with the pace of change. CityWorks would be just a minute's walk from Dalmarnock station, providing direct connections to Glasgow city centre and major destinations including the OVO Hydro and Scottish Event Campus. Celtic Park and the Glasgow International Arena would be on the doorstep, with Glasgow Green also within easy walking distance. For visitors, that means a hotel with the city's sporting, cultural and entertainment offer right on its doorstep, while remaining well connected to the wider city. But this is about more than major events. The businesses we are attracting through the wider Clyde Gateway Innovation masterplan need somewhere for customers, investors and supply chains to stay. As our cluster of businesses in advanced manufacturing, deep-tech, health and life sciences grows, so too will demand from the customers, investors, researchers and supply chains that come with them. CityWorks can help connect these different parts of the emerging East End, strengthening the wider proposition for businesses, residents and visitors alike. This is how successful regeneration should work. The public sector creates the conditions for growth, then private capital recognises the opportunity and helps take a place into its next chapter. A hotel also means new amenities and employment opportunities for local people. Our ambition is to create a place where people want to live, work, invest, collaborate and stay. Investors are right to scrutinise every opportunity carefully. But good investment is also about recognising when a place has changed, and seeing its potential before everyone else does. We have reached that moment in Dalmarnock. In Manchester, I won't be asking investors to take a chance on what Glasgow's east end might one day become. I'll be asking them to look at the momentum already here, recognise the opportunity in front of them and help us deliver the next chapter of one of Glasgow's most ambitious regeneration stories.