Glasgow business leaders have hailed the potential economic benefit of a “new era” for transport, tourism, accessibility and commercial property development in anticipation of next week’s opening of the completed M74.

Scott Taylor, head of Glasgow City Marketing Bureau said the new three-mile stretch of motorway between the Fullarton Road Junction and the Kingston Bridge was already benefiting the city economy, prompting one major hotel operator to enter negotiations over a site in Dalmarnock. He said he expected many further benefits to the city’s tourism economy.

The new road link, which cost £445 million and took three years to build, will be opened on Tuesday by the Duke of Gloucester.
Taylor said: “The M74 link is a very significant development for Glasgow in terms of the opportunities it brings in terms of attracting inward investment.

“We are in advanced discussions with a hotel operator who was specifically attracted to Dalmarnock by the extra facilitator of that roadway.

“It will open up the southeast area of Glasgow which is already morphing because of the Commonwealth Games-related development. It will be a very different place in two to three years. But the completed motorway opens up the whole of south Glasgow and southern Scotland to new opportunities of travelling to Glasgow airport. More passengers means more planes and more routes. It will improve our pitch [to bring in new airlines] enormously.”

Stuart Patrick, chief executive of Glasgow Chamber of Commerce said: “The impact of the M74 means that the regeneration offer in Glasgow’s east end switches from off to on. Virtually no development of real significance would be going ahead without it.

“For Glasgow business traffic it will be transformative … It has the potential to make every life in Glasgow so much straightforward and take congestion out of city centre.

Iain Davidson, head of industrial and logistics with property consultant Colliers International in Glasgow, said: “From an industrial and general property point of view, the new road can only benefit Glasgow.

“A lot of people perceive the main industrial property benefactor being the west of the city at Cardonald and Hillington once the Kingston Bridge bottleneck is removed … there are also immediate benefits to the east end and around the Clyde Gateway [regeneration scheme] where road connectivity is vital to potential industrial occupiers.

“Areas that will benefit include Polmadie, Dixons Blazes, Shawfield and Cambuslang which will have new life breathed into them, though we expect people will have to drive the new road for themselves before we start seeing a direct impact on enquiry levels.”