Tourism experts from Glasgow Caledonian University’s Moffat Centre for Travel and Tourism Business Development have been called on to assess the feasibility of converting an historic building into a mountain biking and sports resource centre, linking with the Cathkin Braes mountain bike tracks and the Commonwealth Games in 2014.

In work commissioned by the Glasgow Building Preservation Trust, the Moffat Centre was tasked with analysing the financial and market viability of Category B-listed St Martin’s Church in Castlemilk as a community and business facility.

The church is set next to the Cathkin Braes Country Park, which is being developed by Glasgow City Council’s Land and Environmental Services into Glasgow’s first international-standard mountain biking course, a permanent facility.

The building has the potential to provide facilities for users of the new mountain bike tracks and Cathkin Braes Country Park, located on the southern edge of Glasgow. The Moffat Centre explored the potential of the building as a facility with showers, cafe and crèche as well as a climbing wall, cycle hire and social business opportunities, feeding back its assessment to the Trust and architects. The aim is to ensure the building has a lasting legacy beyond the Commonwealth Games.

The Moffat Centre took into account the visitor attraction context for mountain biking, the local market assessment for such a facility, the economic and market feasibility of the business case, and the relationship to local community requirements.

Cathkin Braes aims to provide a sustainable legacy after the Games, capable of staging future international events, but also a facility that will benefit the communities of Glasgow and South Lanarkshire and surrounding areas in a sport that is rapidly growing in popularity. Glasgow 2014 will be the 20th Commonwealth Games and will be held from 23 July to 3 August.