The new £450m BBC Wales’ broadcast centre, located in Cardiff Central Square, has now been completed and staff have already started to move in.

The building is located directly outside the main railway station and has been custom built for the broadcaster to replace its Llandaff site. The building forms an important part of the major changes to Central Square which is now in its final stages of development.

BBC Cymru Wales Director Rhodri Talfan Davies said: "Central Square is all about opening up. Broadcasting and media are changing before our eyes. Our audiences these days expect to ‘get up close and personal’. We’ve designed this building to let the light in – not seal it off – and the fantastic location means that we’ll be more accessible.

In total around 1,000 production and support staff will relocate to the new building and that process has now begun. The building has the most advanced broadcast facilities anywhere in the UK.

The opening of the new BBC broadcast centre follows shortly after Legal & General announced that it had exchanged contracts to develop the Interchange, in what will be one of the final stages of Cardiff Central Square, in partnership with the Welsh Government and Rightacres. Comprising over 500,000 sq ft, the Interchange will include: the new Bus Station; 318 Build to Rent (BTR) apartments; and Grade A office space. 

Tom Roberts, Head of Strategic Investment at LGIM Real Assets, said: “To meet the expectations of modern city-dwellers and to improve their quality of life, we must create developments that will work now and into the future. The BBC building is a wonderful example of a modern fit-for-purpose headquarters that is surrounded by appropriate amenities, housing and infrastructure.  We are excited to see it come to life with its new employees now in situ.”

The regeneration scheme is being funded by Legal & General and developed by Cardiff based developer Rightacres.