AN AMBITIOUS plan to build a glass needle skyscraper that would have been Cardiff’s tallest building has been axed, the Echo can reveal.

The iconic £50m development, earmarked for land next to Cardiff Central Station, would have housed more than 100 luxury apartments.

Officially named Seren – the Welsh word for star – by developer Urban Solutions, the 32-storey needle would have stood alongside two smaller blocks containing luxury hotel rooms.

They would have been run by a company called Doubletree , which is part of the Hilton group.

But after years of delays and the onset of the worst economic downturn in 60 years, London-based Urban Solutions has scaled back its plans. It has submitted a proposal to Cardiff Council to build two hotels on the derelict site.

The application states one will be a 214-room, three-star full-service hotel and the other a 150-room, two or three-star reduced-service hotel.

Instead of acres of gleaming glass, the buildings will have white metal cladding, according to documents lodged at City Hall, and 100 parking spaces.

Tony Filice, spokesman for the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors Wales and director at Kelvin Francis Chartered Surveyors in Cardiff, welcomed the change of direction.

“The volume of apartments built in Cardiff over the last six years has been excessive. And, while it’s not necessarily the case there’s no demand for them any more, there is an over supply,” he said.

“This is a good sign in my view because perhaps the planners will now favour town houses and houses being built, which will favour other markets, including families.”

The idea of building a 323-ft glass needle, on the site of the former council planning department on Wood Street, was first mooted more than five years ago. The building, which was used as a media centre during the 1999 Rugby World Cup, was torn down in 2005.

At the time, Urban Solutions said work was due to begin within a couple of months and would be completed by 2007. It was reported the most expensive penthouse apartments on the development would cost at least £500,000.

Development was delayed when, in 2006, a fibre optic cable was discovered running through the site, and a year later the plans were resubmitted to Cardiff council after the developers incorporated a hotel into the design.

Following approval from the planning committee, building work was due to begin in the summer of 2008. But further revised plans for the site were submitted which, according to an agent, altered the mix of apartments and hotel rooms.

The glass needle was to have been 61ft higher than the Capital Tower in Greyfriars Road.