Renaissance Newcastle #4

issue four: autumn 2008

newcastle’s regeneration magazine

Inside: Regeneration round table, heritage conservation, project updates...

Image by Ryder Architecture

Denton Park opens in summer 2009.

This substantial redevelopment of a run down 1970s district shopping centre, being undertaken by Morrisons and Rokeby, will provide a new community focus for West Denton and includes a new Morrisons store, a replacement health centre and shop units, together with improvements to an adjoining school and social club.

newcastle’s regeneration magazine issue four: autumn 2008

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11 R ound table Leading lights in Newcastle’s development discuss the city’s future 21 C ase study The reinvigoration of one of the city’s historic buildings 25 F unding The financial initiatives behind public sector schemes explained

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30 P rojects What is happening with the city’s major developments

Yuill Homes has a track record of delivering award-winning partnership schemes across the North East. Imaginative master planning and practical solutions have led to established successful communities combining residential, commercial and community developments.

For more information call 01429 266620 or visit www.yuillhomes.co.uk

cover image

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Northumberland University

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08 M arkets The low-down on the economic situation, residential, retail, office and leisure sectors

Editor Sarah Herbert sarah@3foxinternational.com deputy Editor Kirsty MacAulay kirsty@3foxinternational.com feature writer Alex Aspinall alex@3foxinternational.com Building a new generation of homes art editor Terry Hawes terry@3foxinternational.com Production Manager Rachael Schofield rachael@3foxinternational.com advertisement Sales Paul Gussar paul@3foxinternational.com office Manager Sue Mapara sue@3foxinternational.com Managing Director Toby Fox toby@3foxinternational.com Printed by Tradewinds Images Urban Initiatives, Newcastle City Council, Steve Brock, Gateshead Council

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05 News Catch up on the latest regeneration news from Newcastle

newcastle’s regeneration magazine

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Published by 189 Lavender Hill London SW11 5TB T: 020 7978 6840 F: 020 7978 6837 For Newcastle City Council Paul Goodwin, sector development officer paul.goodwin@newcastle.gov.uk Subscriptions and Feedback ­www.renaissancenewcastle.com

Subscriptions and Feedback ­www.renaissancenewcastle.com © 3Fox International Limited 2008 All material is strictly copyright and all rights are reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part ­without the written ­permission of 3Fox International Limited is ­strictly ­forbidden. The ­greatest care has been taken to ensure the ­accuracy of ­information in this ­magazine at time of going to press, but we accept no ­responsibility for ­omissions or errors. The views expressed in this ­magazine are not necessarily those of 3Fox International Limited or Newcastle City Council.

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Welcome to Newcastle Newcastle is enjoying unprecedented levels of growth and investment. High profile schemes such as Science City, the Discovery Quarter, Newcastle Great Park and Ouseburn Valley are shaping the economic profile of a fast developing and vibrant European City.

In the city centre the ÂŁ170 million redevelopment of the Eldon Square Shopping Centre, is now in its second phase whilst a major retail led mixed use regeneration scheme covering a 33 acre area around East Pilgrim Street is set to become a distinctive new quarter of the City.

For further information go to www.renaissancenewcastle.com

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round-up: What’s new, hot and happening in Newcastle’s regeneration programme Charlie Falconer, chair of the new City Development Company.

Bridging the city A new city development company is set to transform Newcastle and Gateshead, via a strategic programme of economic and physical development overseeing the whole metropolitan area. NewcastleGateshead CDC, backed by Gateshead Council, Newcastle City Council and One NorthEast, will be an independent businessled body responsible for economic master planning, coordinating and delivering strategic economic and regeneration projects, targeting investment and winning new business.

Former housing minister and Lord Chancellor Charlie Falconer will chair the organisation.

“Gateshead and Newcastle have both come so far over the past 10 years,” said Falconer. “You can see it with your own eyes and there are great developments in prospect. I really want to achieve something for Gateshead and Newcastle.

They are committed to working together and the CDC can deliver real progress for the area based

David Slater Newcastle City Council director of environment and regeneration, who joined in spring 2008, comments: to ensure all development benefits the city, we have to be clear what our priorities are, so we can have a shared view on what’s possible, the timescale, order, and at what cost.

Success will have a huge effect on both residents and

on this partnership. It’s a challenge, but I’m sure we can produce results.”

John Rundle, on secondment from government office One North East, is heading the team setting up the new company. He’s confident that the CDC is the right vehicle to drive forward the pace and quality of economic growth on Tyneside.

“This CDC will be the first in the country operating across two local authority areas,” he says. “Rather than adding another layer to government, we are streamlining our approach to smooth the path for investors, developers and businesses, establishing single points of contact and keeping red tape to a minimum. Our objective is to make Newcastle and Gateshead a more attractive place for both long-term investment and economic growth. The best way to achieve this is by combining our strengths and resources and focusing our ideas and efforts on a common goal.”

the regional economy, and will greatly boost how the city and the region are perceived in the wider world.

As physical developments have a very long lifecycle, we have to continue to take a longterm view, and not become too tied up with short-term changes in the economy which, while real and happening, shouldn’t derail our long-term plans.

All this presents both a huge

challenge and huge opportunity to make this fantastic city an even greater place to live, work and visit. I love it, as I know others do, and am looking forward to making our dreams a reality.

Ian Stratford, chief executive, Newcastle City Council says: We know, through many years of partnership work, how the private sector has the right skills to drive forward the local economy. That’s why we’re taking the bold step of forming the new private-sector led CDC. It adds to my confidence about the city, and to why I’m not predicting credit crunch doom.

Newcastle is well placed to buck the trend. We have the cranes, the constantly evolving skyline, the cultural renaissance, the explosion in hotel provision, and the growth of our professional services sector, especially around the quayside.

But most of all we have huge city centre sites left for development, and an array of commercially attractive, and solidly backed, investment propositions, the two combining together in, for example, the 8ha city centre Science Central site around the old Newcastle Brown brewery site (see p32).

We have a lower debt-toincome ratio than the creditstretched South East, and shifts in house prices will – with less far to fall – have a smaller effect.

Our quality retail market space is more than holding its own, and the office market is steady if not buoyant.

Newcastle is a city driving forward without compromise and demanding the best. So, if you have ambitions for quality, lasting investments and developments – and if you want an environment to do business in – come and have a fresh look at Newcastle.

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round-up continued

Local heroes Local architect practice Mosedale Gillatt wiped the board at the Lord Mayor’s Design Awards for 2007, winning four of the six categories. MGA, set up in 1995, won the special regeneration award for two projects, Woods Pottery and Northern Print (above), both in Ouseburn, which also won individual awards in the conservation/refurbishment category and small-scale category. The practice’s Grosvenor Court project in Jesmond also won the housing award. MGA director Jenny Gillatt is delighted. “To be recognised for our contribution to the city’s regeneration is a great achievement for us,” she says, “and a further reinforcement of our continued work and expertise in this area.”

Another local company to be recognised for its regeneration efforts is Silverlink, whose Trinity Gardens scheme on the Quayside (right) won the Civic Trust award. The scheme was praised as ‘a good example of the creative regeneration of an underused and overgrown site. Easy pedestrian access has increased footfall through the area, bringing new life and an increased feeling of security’. The mixed-use project, completed in 2005, has been credited with improving the bankside, with new seating and access routes. The artwork at the centre of the public realm won the 2006 Marsh award for public sculpture.

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Pedal power In a bid to encourage green travel the council has installed 45 new bike racks across the city and invested £272,000 in cycle routes, with a mix of off-road paths and dedicated cycle lanes. New maps detailing city cycle routes and bike racks, alongside a magazine ‘Get cycling in Newcastle’, will also encourage people to leave their cars at home and get on their bikes and ride.

Under the arches Plans for the refurbishment of the railway arches on Forth Street will transform the area to the south of Central Station. Network Rail’s property division Spacia hopes to put new glass fronts on the units, which range in size from 27sq m to 123sq m, hopefully attracting cafés, art shops and architects offices to the area. The project is due for completion

by September 2008.

Leading light Traditional Chinese style lanterns now light the way along Stowell Street in the heart of Newcastle’s Chinatown. The bright red lanterns provide a cheery and colourful enhancement to the street’s cultural identity. Further plans for renovation in the area, home to the Chinese community since the early 1970s, include lighting the ceremonial arch at the entrance to Chinatown.

Science city starts Demolition on the former brewery site, that will form the central focus of Newcastle’s Science City status, is now complete. The preferred option for the EDAW masterplan will be announced by the end of the summer.

Public consultation will then be undertaken to determine any further comments before the final copy of the masterplan is published (for more on the brewery site see page 32).

Good neighbours The revitalised Grainger town in the heart of Newcastle city centre won the Academy of Urbanism’s ‘great neighbourhood’ award 2008, beating fellow finalists of Soho, London, and Temple Bar, Dublin. The Georgian quarter of Newcastle has been extensively upgraded since the Grainger Town project was set up in 1997, benefiting from £120 million of regeneration. Although that project is now complete, some other individual conservation schemes in Grainger Town, within Newcastle’s Central Conservation Area, are still ongoing. n 0

feature markets

Vital statistics Newcastle’s residential, commercial and retail facts and figures, from house prices to rental yields, and forecasts of what’s to come. By David Gray.

Economic situation Newcastle’s economic health has not completely escaped the chill that has been affecting the whole country since autumn 2007, not least because Northern Rock, based in Gosforth, is a major local employer. But the city continues to grow and create wealth from its increasingly diversified economy. More than 7,000 new service jobs were created in 2007, with strong increases in distribution and tourismrelated employment, compensating for any fall in the financial sector.

The earnings gap continues to close, and gross weekly pay exceeded £410 at the end of 2007. Unemployment remains higher than the national average (Job-Seekers Allowance claimants made up 3.3% of the workforce in March 2008) especially for men, but the rate remains hugely lower than during the blighted years of the 1980s and 1990s.

Perhaps the best evidence of Newcastle’s continuing revival is the rise in self-employment and business start-ups. By the end of 2007, the selfemployed made up 6.7% of the local workforce, compared to less than 5% only two years before.

Residential market The local housing market has not contracted as much as many other parts of the country, although trading conditions are significantly more difficult than up to mid-2007. Figures from the Land Registry show the average price of a house in Newcastle in March 2008 was £143,000, up on the £139,700 of a year earlier.

Detached houses are selling for an average £313,900, semi-detached for £154,850, terraced for £144,400 and flats/maisonettes for £114,000.

Although sales volumes are well down, the prices in all these property categories are still holding up.

Housing completions in 2008-2009 are expected to be around 700 units, according to Peter Cockbain, senior planning policy officer at Newcastle Council. This compares with 845 units in 2007-2008, and 966 in 20052006, but inevitably reflects the market downturn, which according to Cockbain, became particularly evident at the start of 2008 with difficult conditions likely to continue into 2009.

The private market will remain static at best, but he is still very optimistic on the outlook for public-funded housing.

The innovative local assetbacked vehicle for Scotswood will be established by this autumn to deliver more than 1,800 new homes over the coming decade. Barratt, Persimmon and Grainger were chosen in March as the shortlisted private sector partners for this £450 million project. Then there is increased Government funding of £95 million for housing market renewal during 2008-2011, including

schemes at Felling, St James Village and Walker Riverside, with the latter already under construction. The current target is for 860 new homes by end-2011, plus the improvement of a further 2,360 homes across the city. Most of the new housing will be built by the private sector, but Cockbain notes that the recent three-star award to Newcastle’s housing ALMO (Your Homes Newcastle) opens the way to funding for new council homes within the next two years.

With ample green space and stunning panoramic views, the edge-of-city-centre site has real and more words needed to fill here

Grade A rents increased

10% during 2007 08 renaissance

Detached house average price

£313,900 semi-detached

£154,850 terraced £144,400 flats/maisonettes £114,000

7,000

More than new jobs in services created in 2007

The target is for

Office market The city still has a shortage of grade A accommodation, which is made worse by the relatively small number of new completions made in 2007. According to King Sturge, the city centre in early 2008 had 60,000sq ft (5,400sq m) of grade A space and 450,000sq ft (42,000sq m) of secondary space available, while the out-of-town market offered 950,000sq ft (88,000sq m).

Demand remained steady throughout 2007, and totalled 433,000sq ft (40,000sq m) across the city.

In 2007 grade A rents rose 10% to £22 per sq ft, with secondary space remaining at £17-18 per sq ft. Simon Taylor, King Sturge Newcastle, expects that prices of £24 per sq ft will be achieved this year, but “limited new development in Newcastle city centre may tempt occupiers to acquire at Gateshead Quays or hold over until 2009 when new schemes will replenish the city-centre market”. These include 35,000sq ft (3,200sq m) at East Quay 5 and a further project of 45,000sq ft (4,200sq m) at Forth Banks. Meanwhile, Gateshead Quays will see 180,000sq ft (16,500sq m) on the market by end-2008, including developments by Terrace Hill, City & Northern and UK Land Estates.

What is clear is the continuing vitality of the Newcastle commercial market despite the depressed national scene.

A flurry of recent purchases include Gainsborough House by Cushman & Wakefield, Maybrook House by City & Northern and Tritax Securities’ £75 million investment in new buildings at Quorum Business Park. Planning permission was given to Centreland for its £38 million redevelopment of Westgate House in the city centre.

Recent refurbishments in the centre such as Cale Cross and Cathedral Square have found occupiers very quickly and achieved up to £18 per sq ft.

Retail and leisure market Retail rents remain at 2007 levels and are not expected to move much during the next two years, according to AtisReal and Colliers. While the Metro Centre in Gateshead achieves £350 per sq ft and the best grade A space in Newcastle’s Northumberland Street is available at £320 per sq ft, outlying areas are at £180-200 or less.

Newcastle has made itself the shopping and entertainment capital of the North East with major improvements on the way. The £200 million Downing Plaza mixeduse project has planning consent for 60,000sq ft (5,600sq m) of retail, commercial and hotel space. Eldon Square, jointly owned by Newcastle Council and Capital Shopping Centres, will complete its refurbishment and 450,000sq ft (42,000sq m) extension by the end of 2010. This crucial development has already attracted Debenhams and Waitrose as new tenants and is almost fully pre-let.

Meanwhile, Newcastle Council expects planning applications for the huge East Pilgrim Street scheme to be put in before the end of this year. This retail-led project by Brookfield Europe and Aldersgate aims to transform a run-down 17ha site into a lively new hub for the city centre. Success in completing this complicated development would give Newcastle an extra 800,000sq ft (74,000sq m) of retail space by 2016 and cement the city’s reputation as the region’s shopping mecca. n

860 2011 2,360

new homes by end plus the improvement of a further homes across the city

The East Pilgrim Street scheme will add

74,000sq m

of retail space by 2016

Gateshead Quays will see

180,000sq ft

on the market by end2008, including developments by Terrace Hill, City & Northern and UK Land Estates renaissance renaissance 09

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round table feature

Talking points Just how is Newcastle’s regeneration coming along? Some of the city’s big names in the world of development came together to discuss how they see Newcastle evolving.

Adrian Stanley (Ast) Senior office partner, Eversheds

Mark Massey (MM) Senior partner, IDPartnershipnorthern

Peter Buchan (PB) Chief executive, Ryder HKS

David Furniss (DF) Director, AtisReal Newcastle

Adam Serfontein (AS) Managing director, Hanro Group

Kevan Carrick (KC) Partner, JK Property Consultants

Bill Lynn (BL), Chief executive, Storeys:ssp

Chris Pearson (CP) Partner, Gavin Black and Partners

Chair: Paul Rubenstein (PR) Assistant chief executive, policy, Newcastle City Council

PR: Given the current climate, what are your views of development prospects in Newcastle? Are you looking more towards office and commercial and away from residential? Is the development climate more difficult now than a year ago?

KC: The supply of money is going to be the problem. What happens in the financial markets is really going to dictate what happens in our industry and I think it’s really too early to make a judgement.

BL: Demand is still there, particularly in the office, hotel and leisure markets. But the residential market, particularly flats, is struggling badly.

AS: But it’s interesting that the rental market is relatively strong.

BL: Is that a consequence of people’s uncertainty in committing to buy? And that they’d rather rent?

AS: I think there is a social shift towards renting, rather than outright ownership. Also, the registered social landlord (RSL) market is quite bullish about development, and we’re beginning to see major RSLs become developers and lead the way.

BL: I think a lot will depend upon supply of money and whether people can get the finance to do what they want to do.

Getting it is very expensive at the moment.

AS: Also, if we’re buying when everyone else is buying and selling when everyone else is selling, we can talk ourselves into a recession and talk it longer. We’re buying heavily at the moment on the basis that I don’t think it’s going to get significantly worse and the upside potential is greater than the downside risk.

PB: We’re looking at the long-term, where investors may be interested in one area of the economy, perhaps in asset vehicle models or strategic financing. If you can hook people in for the longer term, as the market changes, then you can change priorities with them.

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AS: The perverse thing is that occupational demand is holding up. The commercial and office side is very strong – there’s a lot of unsatisfied demand out there. Not for investors but for indigenous companies. I wonder if rental levels in Newcastle now have reached a point to protect us a bit…

KC: We’re above the line as to what makes a development viable, but it’s pretty fragile. It’s taken a long time to get there and we’ve been very fortunate that the supply and demand of new space has been very well balanced over a number of years. That’s a good sign for the future, so long as occupier demand is maintained.

AS: Improvement in the headline rent has made the position easier. But spec development is going to become really windy. Quite a few developers, ourselves included, two or three years ago would 12

undertake a development maybe 30% to 40% pre-let and ‘spec’ the rest. We’re now a bit nervous because the cost of funds threatens the profit.

CP: The investment market has changed so fundamentally, nationally, that developers’ appraisals aren’t going to work, which is going to make supply a real problem. I don’t think the region necessarily appreciates how different the property market is, and it’s going to get worse before it gets better.

MM: As well as oversupply, there’s everything that we saw in the 1990s: large firms of architects and developers laying off staff and generally shutting up shop. I think we should prepare for the worst so we can maybe cope with what comes.

DF: It’s not just cost of funds either. It’s the build cost too, as the sustainability

agenda adds costs to development. The only place that can impact is on residual value. I’m involved in a number of projects where the residual land value is falling and landowners are just taking it off the market. Unpicking that cycle is going to be as difficult as the funding packages become looser.

AS: And the regulations are getting worse and having a significant cost, and that’s not going away either.

DF: The residential development sector will have to cope with additional costs of complying with increasingly stringent sustainability demands. Couple this with increased funding costs, and high demand for affordable housing, all of which impact on land value, and you have an environment where the supply of land is going to diminish at a time when there is a real need to develop more.

round table feature

We’ve been very fortunate. Supply and demand of new space has been well balanced over a number of years. A good sign for the future

PR: What do you think of the sustainability issue? Our elected members are extremely enthusiastic about it, setting highest possible standards, carbon-neutral housing etc.

Is it realistic?

DF: I think it has to be understood outside the narrow context of energy efficiency. It’s actually about a whole life cycle for property.

KC: We have to be careful. In the North East, to maintain and attract occupier demand, you’ve got to look at competitors, and their quality of design and accommodation, and get the balance right between what we think the market needs, what they’re prepared to pay for, and how we can produce that in relation to completed developments.

PB: There’s a public sector role, because ensuring all development is carbon-

neutral by 2016 is an infrastructure issue.

There’s a limit to what you can do on a building-by-building basis. We need to be thinking radically differently about how we deal with the pumping of energy around the system and how it’s generated.

ASt: We’re seeing increasingly more interesting structures, community involvement, recycling, etc, but it’s also about transport, shared car systems and so on. It’s about how you use the building over the next 15 to 25 years.

PR: You could argue that there has been a bit of a fallow period in Newcastle over the past three or four years, but there is the potential for large scale opportunity over the next few years, in the western side of the city centre around the former brewery sites, around the area west of Forth Banks, the Stephenson Quarter and East Pilgrim Street. This is obviously

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Haymarket Hub Newcastle upon Tyne Start on site May 2007 Developed

by Closegate A Joint Development

by Closegate, Tolent and 42nd Street Realty Ltd.

closegate

Alderman Fenwick's House, 98 -100 Pilgrim Street, Newcastle upon Tyne NE1 6SQ 0191 211 2700 info@closegate.com

round table feature

What’s exciting is the developments planned now are such big schemes they’re actually capable of creating their own area of Newcastle

very exciting, but how do we balance this with the risk of oversupply?

DF: Well I think the question is: Are you excited or wary at the scale of development? I think both in equal measure.

Excited because speculative development is now viable in the city, which is actually what it takes to be sustainable in market terms. And we need more high-quality accommodation across all sectors. We have missed some opportunities in the past few years, and it took the industry time to get confident that there’s a sustainable modern economy driving the built environment here. But wary because if funding relaxes and everything comes in a rush, we might have an oversupply.

Frankly, unless we have these projects teed up and ready to go at the next cycle, we’ll miss it again – so we have got to be ready. We have to take the risk.

The city needs to be pro-active and help the private sector prep sites and get consents ready to go for the next time.

KC: The market has worked extremely well in Newcastle over the years and we’ve never had a significant oversupply of space, as the judgement of developers, and their advisors and funders, has been pretty good in pacing the flow of development, and that’s probably going to continue.

But we do need a radical change from the lack of activity over the last few years, to one of a ‘can-do attitude’ for business in the planning context from the city council.

PB: The key word that keeps cropping up is quality, with a slight concern that maybe, when money’s tight, we can’t afford to build well enough. In setting the bar for that the public sector has a huge role.

PR: Why haven’t we achieved that level of quality in the past?

AS: The rental levels just haven’t been able to justify it.

KC: I think there’s that, but I also think there’s been an attitude of compromise.

The city deserves iconic buildings, to make a statement that you’ve arrived in Newcastle. We need the leadership of the city, through planning and regeneration, to establish that, while being careful that we don’t price ourselves out of the market.

PR: The point, presumably, is that it’s all very well to insist on that when you’ve got large grants on the go. But, when you’re doing that on a commercial basis – then it’s challenging.

AS: Yes, something’s got to give. You’ve got pressure on occupational demand, cost of funds rising, building regulations, 10% renewable energy planning

conditions, a percentage for art… and it’s all coming at the same time.

MM: The sustainability expenses in the market place can be nonsensical. Should we be thinking ‘sustainable housing, or no housing at all’? What do we really need in terms of the commercial market, the housing market, and infrastructure expenditure?

PR: All these issues are debated daily in the council. The point is an important one about being keen to raise the bar on quality – but in an affordable and commercially presentable way. Often the market in Newcastle has been driven by indigenous companies or relocations rather than by direct investment or inward investment.

AS: The original idea for development of the Quayside was to attract some global/ national names to Newcastle. What actually happened is that it catered for the growth of local companies. That’s not a bad thing – some of the regional law firms massively increased their turnover once they had the capacity to move and grow.

What’s exciting is that the developments planned now are such big schemes, they’re actually capable of creating their own area of Newcastle, which I think has got the capacity to attract new investors.

KC: What we’re seeing through Northern

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feature round table

Newcastle is a different city than it was 10 years ago. It’s now in colour and it was in black and white Way and One Northeast is the approach to developing in clusters, which focuses the market to a particular sector, creating a much better chance of attracting investment into the industry.

AS: We’ve also got big areas where you can create your individual identity.

Although capital has fallen in 2007 by 10% and the forecast is for another drop this year, we’re playing a long game here, so it’s actually not as bad as all that.

PB: Historically we have appealed to indigenous companies and I think it’s right that we need to get out there and start bringing in much more investment.

To do that we need to be doing a hell of a lot more as a region to get our act together and get out there and get the message out.

DF: It’s not just about property either.

The critical thing as far as investors are concerned is high quality, well-educated people who can do the job – human capacity.

PB: Human capital is critical to economic development. For example I know that there are advance talks going on between [oil and gas companies] Duco, Wellstream and so on. The universities and colleges are looking at how to supply a better flow of skilled people, and if we can help with land and property....

That combination of physical and human is a classic example of where we 16

should be able to drive forward one of the region’s strongest clusters.

MM: Just one of those companies that you mentioned, I think has a £100 million turnover, and puts £36 million into our local economy each year. Maybe it’s time to re-focus in these areas which historically there’s been great, great success in.

PR: This brings me onto the third question which is around the city development company. The CDC will focus on the missing piece of the picture of the Newcastle/Gateshead collaboration over the past eight or nine years – the economy. It will proactively go out to the marketplace to sell Newcastle/Gateshead, attract finance, and attract companies. Is that the right thing to do? What should our early priorities be? What are the risks?

PB: I find it very exciting. To me the priority is just to be out there – to be seen to be doing something quick.

KC: I think it’s the most important decision for the city and the region for the next 25 to 30 years. We can learn from what development corporations and URC’s have or have not done. I think, however, that there needs to be a very clear business plan based on some good research on economic, marketing and development strategy, as well as some carefully chosen deliverables, so

that you’re not trying to be all things to all men. How the CDC works as a delivering organisation is crucial as the link between the public and private sector.

DF: I might have missed something, but I don’t really know what the brief is, what it’s going to do, what assets it’s going to use, what powers it’s going to have. Is it about regeneration, or enabling private sector redevelopment? Getting that clarity into the marketplace on this would be the first thing that I would do.

PR: I’m conscious that maybe we need to do a bit more to explain the role. It’s about raising the bar of quality, providing focus, accelerating delivery, being a focal point to attract investment in the kind of pro-active way that perhaps we haven’t done in the past.

To look at funding direct investment and global opportunities which nobody’s really done for Newcastle and Gateshead in recent years. So in many ways, a lot of the things that have been said around this table – that’s exactly what the CDC is there to do. Is there a risk that the public sector gets in the way of development, either deliberately or accidentally, by having lots of organisations, and you don’t quite know who to go to? Does the public sector still need to get its act together a bit more?

AS: There’s a positive and a negative here. The positive is that the Science

➺

e r ’ e w What g n i p o l e dev today

Will tran sform the city tomorro w

At Newcastle Science City we believe that the economic benefits of science should be felt by as many people as possible across the city. That’s why we’re actively developing new science-based businesses, attracting investment from all over the world and creating new jobs. At the former Scottish & Newcastle Brewery, an iconic site in the centre of the city, we’re developing a revolutionary hub where scientists and researchers can mix with business people and the community. Another of our exciting projects is the world’s first Campus for Ageing & Vitality based at the General Hospital. The campus builds on the city’s reputation for scientific excellence by providing the very latest medical and research facilities. It’s all part of our aim to regenerate the region through science. The future is happening right here in Newcastle Science City.

A partnership between

Science is the future. The future is here. www.newcastlesciencecity.com

St Silas Church & Housing, Byker.

St Silas Church, which is Grade II Listed, was built in the heart of the shipbuilding community of Byker on the corner of Clifford Street and Burton Street in 1885/1886 to serve a Parish of 15,000 souls. By 2002 the Parish had declined to 4,500 souls and the congregation to about 25. The terraced streets which once surrounded the Church had been demolished; a new elevated section of the Metro railway and the Shields Road by-pass separated the Church from the new community in the Byker Wall.

The Church’s future looked unsustainable when the Parish and Byker Bridge Housing Association (BBHA) decided to collaborate to develop a brief for the Parish’s Architect Anthony Keith Architects. The Church’s objectives were to increase involvement with the surrounding community, make the most of its resources to cut its running costs and create an income for it. BBHA needed new head offices and land for housing.

They decided to lease a third of the Church to Byker Bridge Housing Association for their head offices. They wanted to create a new Worship area and a Church Hall with new kitchen and toilets. The old Church Hall, which was a late addition to the Church, would be demolished to restore the original concept and allow the land between the Church and the Metro line to be redeveloped as housing for single homeless people. The existing High Altar was to be removed and the floor level of the Nave maintained right through, to provide a less hierarchical and more flexible Worship space and a level approach for people with disabilities. New heating and lighting was required together with a PA and induction loop system.

at the West end are as simple as possible so that they do not distract from the splendour of the Nave or attempt to imitate it.

Before construction started on the housing a study was undertaken of the noise and vibration levels in the area and a specification developed from it to achieve a noise reduction greater than the standards required in the Building Regulations.

View of the new courtyard to the south of the Church.

The housing scheme which is made up of 19 bedsits and a Wardens bungalow turns its back on the noisy railway and the road and is arranged around a courtyard looking towards the Church. It is at its highest closest to the Metro on the South East side and is at its lowest on the West to allow the maximum amount of sunlight into the courtyard. It also acts as a sound barrier to reduce the noise disturbance in the Church from the by-pass and railway, services can now be held undisturbed by passing trains.

This scheme won the Lord Mayors Design Award for Refurbishment & Conservation in 2005, and the RICS Renaissance Award for Community Benefit in 2006. The scheme was also short listed for the National RICS awards in 2006 and received a Special Mention award at the RIBA Hadrian Awards in 2007.

The housing has proved very successful particularly with the residents, some stating that the housing and community have changed their lives. The Church has also seen an increase in the congregation and a welcome return of weddings and christenings being held at the Church. The new Church hall is also proving very popular and is usually fully booked providing an income for the Church.

View to the West end of the Church showing the new full height glazed screen and new kitchen and toilet accommodation.

Inside the Church a mezzanine floor was inserted in the North Aisle to double the floor area available to BBHA. This had to be designed to be reversible with minimum impact on the existing structure. The timber coffered ceiling was left exposed as a feature in the offices. The new partition wall between the Church and the new offices includes arched fire resisting windows to remind everyone using the building that it is still a place of Worship.

The division between the new Church Hall and the new Worship area is frameless glass to maintain the overall impression of the Nave as one space. The new kitchens and toilets inserted

Contractor: Dorin Construction Hadrian House, Beaminster Way East, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE3 2ER T: 0191 214 0360 F: 0191 214 0578

Anthony Keith Architects Ltd. 19 Lansdowne Terrace, Gosforth, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE3 1HP T: 0191 213 0133 F: 0191 213 5050

Services Engineers: J Humphrey & Partners Prosperous House, Ecclestone Close, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE27 0RX T: 0191 268 1332 F: 0191 268 5851

E: mail@akarchitects.net W: www.akarchitects.net

Quantity Surveyor: Todd Milburn Partnership 150 New Bridge Street, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE1 2TE T: 0191 230 2100 F: 0191 230 2101

round table feature

City wouldn’t have been put together without the public sector’s involvement.

The area where there needs to be more co-ordination is in the processing of planning applications and planning conditions which are quite tricky at the moment.

PB: I think the CDC needs to be that first point of call and very clear about what it’s doing, because if it is just another agency it adds to the confusion.

If that happens, we’re completely dead in the water.

DF: Co-ordination is absolutely critical from the public sector point of view.

From our side of the table, there seems to have been an over-emphasis on development control, rather than enablement.

Also, I think there needs to be recognition that the lifecycle of property is long, so the environment we’re working in has to be flexible enough to allow for a change over time, within any given project. Focusing on one thing at the start and expecting that to be the thing to come out at the end is the wrong thing to do.

PB: So it’s about working it through together?

KC: I’m very encouraged by what’s emerging. There’s some exciting stuff.

We’ve had a challenge over the past few years on delivery because of a dichotomy between what the planning development

control aspects require, as against what the leadership wants. The CDC could establish a very clear delivery vehicle in relation to strategies and articulate it so that both the market and public sector know what is expected of them.

CP: When we work outside the region, it’s very interesting how councils in other cities and regions respond. In one example, our clients had a slight problem, and the council’s approach was how to get around it. My impression when I ring Newcastle council is that it hasn’t always taken that approach.

PR: We’ve heard that and changes have been made. It’s also true that we’re trying to realign resources to be delivery focused. We have to deliver schemes worth £400-500 million and we haven’t put the resources in place to enable that delivery. That can’t go on.

A final question about change, but particularly about what we can learn about change over the recent past.

PB: Change has been phenomenal.

AS: Newcastle is a different city than it was 10 years ago. At the risk of sounding naff, it’s a city that’s now in colour and it was in black and white.

BL: We mustn’t let the momentum drop.

It’s taken a long time to get to where we are. We’ve got to be brave and keep going. The support of the local authority is absolutely paramount. We’ve got a

head of steam now, better than most parts of the UK. PB: The fact that we’re meeting to have this discussion together is a huge change.

We can begin to develop a shared agenda that we can all buy into.

ASt: Confidence is crucial. One of the biggest changes I’ve seen is selfconfidence in the region and that must be maintained.

DF: I have clients and colleagues who come to the city from all over the UK, and Europe, and they are excited by the city. They see a very interesting, exciting place. So I think the external perception of what is possible in the North East is very different and I think it’s down to the fact that we now seem to have the confidence: we’ve got an economy which is much broader based, and it can support financial services and the service sector. But it really is just the start.

MM: Isn’t it also about finding our own solutions? Taking this opportunity to become the exemplar we’ve always wanted to be. We pull ourselves up by our bootstraps – if it’ll work in the North East, it will work everywhere and we should not only be sorting our own problems out, but going and sorting other peoples’ out. n

19

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hanover mills case study

Fire escape Top: Hanover Mills, after its final fire.

Above and right: West One, the new-build component of the scheme.

Gutted by fires, and teetering on collapse, it looked like the end for this historic bonded warehouse.

But, as Pamela Buxton explains, new-build elements, inside and out, mean it lives on.

continued overleaf

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21

1844

22

1997

2006 Major fire guts

secures planning consent to convert warehouse to residential use.

remaining building. Newcastle City Council issues a dangerous building order and gives Zirca 28 days to make it safe.

Yet with its arched windows, large loading bay entrances and imposing brick walls, the building still had plenty of character and was a decent candidate for regeneration. Napper Architects was able to draw up a conversion scheme to create 48 apartments in the old east end of the warehouse, which rises up to seven storeys, and a further 86 in a substantial new addition next to the original structure.

Imagine Napper and Zirca’s dismay, then, when the 2006 fire struck just before the project started on site. “It was massively ablaze and the whole of Newcastle was covered with smoke,” recalls Napper associate Mark Bowman. “It destroyed everything that we’d have retained – there were huge timber numbers on the outside but they all burnt and fell off. It was completely gutted. All we had was a brickwork shell and lots of charred timbers.”

It was estimated that it would take £1 million just to stabilise the devastated structure. Undeterred, Mandale stepped in, confident that the appeal of new apartments in a historic building would be worth the far greater effort involved in retaining the structure.

“We’ll have a go at anything,” says Mandale’s residential sales commercial negotiator Simon Ede. “The hardest part was the planning – how we were going to make the financial part work for the amount of apartments we could get in.”

“It would have been considerably easier to start again on the site. But it would have taken a lot longer to get the revised planning permission,” adds

2001 Developer Zirca

1997 Two fires in nine

timber bonded warehouse built in the then thriving industrial part of Newcastle, now a conservation area.

1844 Large brick and

Hanover Mills timeline

Above: The West One part of the site, before work started.

weeks destroy the western part of the warehouse.

In March 2006, a huge fire brought parts of central Newcastle to a standstill. Clouds of smoke hung over the Quayside district as flames shot out of the city’s historic bonded warehouse, a building well-known to all locals, thanks to its prominent position in the Tyne Gorge close to the Queen Elizabeth Bridge.

The damage was so extensive that the city council issued a dangerous building order and recommended that it be demolished. Yet little more than two years later, in spring 2008, the building has been transformed into smart city-centre apartments and is now fully sold, with sales boosted enormously by the historic nature of the grade II-listed warehouse, the last bonded warehouses in the city to be converted.

The developer who pulled off this unlikely turnaround is Mandale, working in collaboration with local practice Napper Architects. Napper has been involved in the project for six years, and was initially commissioned by the previous developer Zirca, which had secured planning permission for a conversion scheme but lost interest after the last of several serious fires, and sold the site to Mandale.

When Napper first got involved, the 19th century building was in a poor state after decades of disuse and damage from earlier fires, which had destroyed the western part of the substantial brick building.

Subsequent exposure to the elements had wrought further damage, and the failure of many proposed schemes in the 80s and 90s to materialise, meant it was left to moulder.

March 2006

hanover mills case study

Bowman. “It’s a big chunk of brickwork. Everyone knows it because it’s been there so long. It’d have been a shame to have lost it.”

Construction began less than a year later. To salvage what was left of the building, the design team shored up the structure with scaffolding and piled foundations for a new steel-framed building within the existing warehouse walls. These original walls were then tied to the new ones. The result is that externally at least, as much of the character of the building as possible was preserved, while internally, it’s a brand new building with no hint of the former warehouse character.

There are, however plenty of steel columns from the new frame visible within the apartments and the ground floor Chinese restaurant: some are exposed, while others are boxed back to internal walls to resemble piers. Considerable external repairs had to be carried out to the brickwork, as much of the original lime mortar had fallen out and needed replacing.

Apartments are arranged around a top-lit atrium in the middle of the retained building, accessed at level five of the seven storeys because of the steeply sloping site. Because of the very deep plan of the warehouse, some of the one- and two-bed flats are very generously sized, at up to 112sq m (1,215sq ft) and 195sq m (2,100sq ft) respectively, although this includes areas with little natural light that are best used as storage. Maximising light was a big issue for the architects – some of the duplexes use mezzanines to get light down into the rear of the lower level.

Next to the listed structure is an eight-storey new build component, including a penthouse, known as

West One. There are no through links, with access via three separate staircase and lift cores. The new building has a red brick plinth to complement its neighbour but there is no misguided attempt to make it appear as old as the original warehouse – instead it has bright render above and projecting balconies in contrast with the warehouse’s Juliet balconies.

With the residential buildings occupying all of the warehouse site, providing parking for the apartments was a key issue. Mandale’s solution was to locate it in its nearby Forth Banks development just on the other side of Queen Elizabeth Bridge, in a 15-storey tower with 12 floors of residential, three floors of offices, and a further block of 215 parking spaces and more offices.

The total development cost of Hanover Mills and Forth Banks has been £30 million. But it was a wise investment. Mandale has been rewarded for its boldness and its investment with a high-profile scheme, which sold out ahead of the property market wobble. Zirca, and other developers who flirted with regenerating the site, must be kicking themselves.

“They’ve missed a great opportunity,” says Mandale’s Ede, adding that the original façade that was so nearly lost in the fire and its aftermath turned out in the end to be a “fantastic selling point”.

Napper’s Bowman is incredibly proud that the practice was able to play its part in rehabilitating one of the oldest buildings in Newcastle’s Quayside, and giving it the means to extend its occupied use, something that seemed so unlikely just a few years ago: “It’s there and occupied. And it will be there for a long time to come.” n

The original facade that was so nearly lost in the fire has turned out to be a fantastic selling point

2007

2008

completed and fully sold.

2008 Hanover Mills

site to convert the building to apartments and build an adjacent new block.

2007 Work starts on

Mandale takes on the project.

2006 New developer

2006 Facing bills of

£1 million just to stabilise the building, Zirca pulls out.

Below: The eightstorey new-build component is designed with modern, clean lines.

23

11 REGENERATION DELIVERY VEHICLES Client: Network Rail British Waterways East Midlands RDA & EP One NorthEast RDA NorthWest RDA Advantage W Midlands RDA Croydon Council Newcastle City Council One NorthEast RDA (development sites) Newham Borough Council Devon County Council

Trading as: Solum ISIS Blueprint Buildings for Business Space NorthWest PxP

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In procurement

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Helping to deliver regeneration in the North East Leeds / Newcastle London

Jon Bull Diamond Andrew Ludiman

0113 235 5274 0207 493 4933

funding feature

Capital ideas PPP, PFI, LIFT… There have never been more options for funding public sector schemes. But how do they all work? And how is Newcastle leading the way? Julie Mackintosh investigates.

In the brave NEW world of public-private partnerships, in their many forms, on top of all the other potential investment models, council funding is more complex and arguably more effective than it has ever been before.

“It’s about finding the most appropriate way of financing a scheme depending on its size and scale,” explains Paul Woods, Newcastle City Council and Tyne and Wear Passenger Transport Authority treasurer. “That could be through traditional capital investment or by using another investment vehicle.

“In order to secure the investment needed to achieve our objectives we have taken full advantage of the options available to us and have been at the forefront of pioneering innovative new methods. This has drawn accolades for its groundbreaking approach, clinching the ‘best UK deal to sign’ for the Tyne Crossing project at the Public Private Finance Awards 2008.”

Another initiative is the Newcastle and North Tyneside local improvement finance trust, or LIFT for short, which has also proved a huge success. A form of public-private partnership

(PPP), it was formed between Newcastle and North Tyneside councils, their primary care trusts, the Department of Health and developer Robertson Capital Projects. The LIFT is developing four customer service centres in the Newcastle area, offering a wide range of amenities including GP surgeries, dentists, mental health practitioners, libraries and council benefits and social services teams, to name just a few.

LIFTs were originally conceived by the Department of Health as a vehicle for delivering primary healthcare provision.

But the model – based on private sector investment, locating similar services together and economies of scale – fitted with Newcastle City Council’s even wider plans. It became one of the first authorities in the country to pilot the scheme after its conception in 2001.

“It’s about getting services to the public in a joined up, efficient way,” says Woods. “By developing a number of relatively small schemes concurrently you can secure a better price and only have to go through the tendering process once.”

LIFT also meets with the approval of the National Audit Office. The government watchdog said: “LIFT offers many advantages to the local health economy, while its structure fits with government policy to use private sector investment where feasible. LIFT schemes are a partnership – the private sector provides a large proportion of the overall funding and has expertise in property development and project management.

Furthermore, because LIFT transfers risk to the private investor, the partnership enables public sector professionals to focus on delivery of a good quality service”.

In Newcastle, developer Robertson is building all four of the city’s new customer service centres (CSCs). Kenton and Gosforth are complete and functioning, while the west end

➺ 25

feature funding

Benwell and east end Byker projects are due to open by the end of 2008. Kenton, the first of the schemes, opened in 2005 and offers a three-doctor GP surgery, dentists, and a full range of PCT services including midwifery, district nursing and older people’s provision. It was followed by the Gosforth customer service centre and library in December 2007.

CSC staff are trained to help with more than 90 different council services, including paying council tax or rent, applying for housing and council tax benefit and finding out about environmental issues and trading standards. Northumbria Police hold monthly surgery sessions and Your Homes Newcastle also holds a surgery there each weekday. What’s more, Gosforth CSC has the first fully selfservice public library in the city to issue and return books, CDs and DVDs. “The aim is that, once the final two CSCs open next year, over 90% of the city population will be within 1.5 miles of at least one centre,” says councillor Anita Lower, executive member for modernisation, transformation and regulation.

Building Schools for the Future (BSF) is another form of PPP – this time designed to improve and/or replace all of the country’s school estate over the next 26

15 years. Newcastle was among 14 local authorities selected to participate in the first wave of the government initiative. It is refurbishing and rebuilding 16 schools as part of a £180 million project signed with Aura Learning Communities, a consortium of PB, Sir Robert McAlpine and Robertson Capital in July 2007.

Construction work is already under way at eight schools across the city, with the first due to be complete in 2009.

PFI is also going strong. In March 2004, Newcastle City Council and North Tyneside Council signed a £250 million PFI deal with energy giant Scottish and Southern Energy. The contract, to replace and maintain streetlights in both authorities for the next 25 years, was the first time two councils had entered a joint venture of this kind. The massive scheme will see 80% of the lights in Newcastle replaced by the end of 2009 and, according to Newcastle City Council’s director of technical services Michael Murphy, the project is ahead of schedule by one year, or 1,000 lamp posts.

“We’ve had excellent feedback from residents, gaining over 90% in yearly satisfaction surveys and that’s even when we’ve been digging up the street,” he says, pointing out that the new “white lights solution” is cutting fear of crime and increasing CCTV visibility.

It’s about finding the most appropriate way of financing a scheme, for its size and scale

➺

feature funding

The new £40 million Newcastle City Library due to open in March 2009 is another high profile example of PFI. At 8,000sq m it will be the largest library between Leeds and Edinburgh. Built over six levels in a striking glass building, services will include lending, study areas, multi-media, internet and PC provision, a 185-seat performance space, and history and children’s zones.

“The previous library was in a poor structural state and would have cost nearly as much to refurbish to today’s standards as it would to rebuild,” says Tony Durcan, Newcastle City Council’s head of libraries, lifelong learning and culture.

The funding options don’t end with three-letter acronyms. Newcastle City Council has also taken advantage of prudential borrowing. The power, which came into effect in 2004, allows local authorities to borrow without the consent of central government, as long as they remain within their own affordable borrowing limits, using future revenue streams as security for loans.

“People [in local government] are using it responsibly and innovatively,” says Maureen Wellen, assistant director for local government finance at CIPFA. “They have thought about what they want to do.”

28

Bringing cheaper finance into the equation can be the difference between a project happening or not It is also funding several high profile Newcastle regeneration and transport schemes “using the freedom and flexibility of prudential borrowing to help achieve cost effective investment”.

These include the Tyne Tunnel, Eldon Square shopping centre extension and the purchase of the brewery site for Science City. In all, prudential borrowing has totalled £94 million since 2004, including £35.1 million in 2007/08.

At Eldon Square, the council is investing around £50 million in a £170 million refreshment and extension of the shopping centre. It holds a 40% equity stake in the scheme (Capital Shopping Centres has the remaining 60%) and while acknowledging that the “risk needed to be carefully considered”, the council is confident the debt would be serviced by increased rental income as a result of the makeover.

And what about that award-winning Tyne Crossing we mentioned at the

beginning? The £400 million deal will see a new two-lane tunnel and refurbishment of the existing tunnel on the A19. The project will require no taxpayer funding as all costs are being met by tolls. Woods estimates this system will save £20 million over the life of the project.

“Prudential borrowing brings cheaper finance into the equation, which can be the difference between a project happening or not, and affects the timescale in which it can happen,” he says. “It allows the council to participate on a stronger basis and can give us a stronger say in regeneration developments”. n

We’re building a brighter, better Metro for the future.

Nexus is taking its plans to modernise Metro to a new level, investing more than £350 million in Tyne and Wear’s rapid transport system.

Now the Metro: All Change programme, backed by Government over the next 10 years, will deliver ambitious modernisation of the whole system.

All Change will let us completely overhaul the tracks and technology which drives Metro to guarantee its future reliability.

But it will do more – modernised stations, passenger information, ticket machines and new control barriers will give travellers of the future the convenience they demand.

The refurbishment of the distinctive Metrocar fleet and its long-term replacement will empower Metro to carry passengers in a level of comfort to compete with the car.

On top of that we hope to win funding for a second track to South Shields, more park-and-ride facilities and the rebuilding of major suburban interchanges.

Work is already well under way to completely rebuild Haymarket station, used by more than six million passengers annually, and will be complete next year.

More than 40 million passengers use Metro every year to get to work, to study, to shop and have fun.

The whole region backed our business plan to modernise Metro – now watch us deliver.

site map

Wellbar Central p36

Eldon Square p33

Brewery site p32

East Pilgrim Street p33

Stephenson Quarter p34

An in-depth look at the regeneration projects shaping Newcastleâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s renaissance

30

Project update

project update

Haymarket Hub p37

Ouseburn Valley p40

Baltic Business Quarter p38

Gateshead Town Centre p39

31

Brewery masterplan The eagerly anticipated redevelopment of the Newcastle Brown brewery site is one step closer, with clearance of the site now complete.

Following the most recent round of consultation, masterplanner EDAW will present a preferred option masterplan by the end of summer 2008.

EDAW director Jaimie Ferguson claims feedback has been very positive, with local people keen to see it go ahead. “A lot of issues came up,” he says. “But the main concerns were about the location of taller buildings, land use, and traffic and parking, always big concerns with any development on that scale.”

The 8ha site to the west of the city centre will be the main focus for Newcastle’s Science City. The science-led, mixed-use development will incorporate Newcastle College’s 4,600sq m School of Applied Science, 27,000sq m of laboratory and research space and 9,000sq m of supporting facilities, including exhibition space and a new business school for the college, hotel, retail and office space, student accommodation, 32

and flats and houses, including family homes. The unusual mix is needed, according to Ferguson, to prevent it becoming an isolated campus. “It is a mixed-use development and it just so happens that some of the distinct buildings have specialist occupiers. It is a fantastic opportunity to bring a whole host of things together.

“It should be an extension of the city centre. The brewery site has long been cut off from the city centre and we’re trying to open it up, with the emphasis on knitting the residential areas in the west to the centre. The masterplan will blur the edges so there is a seamless transition between the residential quarter and the heart of the city.”

To help the site blend into the context, the commercial side of the development will be on the eastern edge, closer to the city centre, while the residential element will be on the western edge. The area will be much more pedestrian-friendly, with high-quality public realm, and walking routes through the site and into the city centre.

project update

East Pilgrim Street

Eldon Square

The large swathe of land along East Pilgrim Street is currently a mix of boardedup shop fronts, small-scale retail outlets and listed buildings. It is hoped the regeneration of the site, which links the Quayside to the city centre, into a retail-led mixed-use quarter will extend shopping in the city centre, essential to strengthening Newcastle’s role as a regional capital.

The main issues for the development of the site will be the topography (it slopes from north to south) and establishing a good balance between the design of the new buildings and the historic and listed buildings on the site.

The first round of public consultation on the development was completed towards the end of 2007.

While plans for public space and public squares received a lot of support, traffic and transport remained big issues.

A development framework is being drawn up to establish agreed principles to guide planning.

A report on the public consultation is awaiting approval by committee and the preferred option will be announced by the end of the summer. Further consultation will be held in early autumn.

The ongoing redevelopment of Newcastle’s premier shopping centre will increase retail space by 28,000sq m, as well as creating a new state-of-the-art bus station and upgrading the square at the centre of the mall.

Much of the project has now been completed. The bus station was demolished in 2006, releasing space which has been converted for retail use, and St George’s Way opened in February 2008, providing a link to Eldon Square and the new bus station which opened in March 2007. According to Martin Breeden, group manager at Capital Shopping Centres, the improvements have been very well received. Perhaps the most ringing endorsement of the project is that high-end supermarket Waitrose will be opening its first store in the city, on St George’s Way, this August.

The final section of Eldon Square’s overhaul is now under construction. Eldon Square South will open in spring 2010, anchored by a four-floor Debenhams store, the first new department store in the city for many years. The scheme will also offer the first flagship-sized units to be built in the city in the last 20 years.

They are particularly desirable, according to Breeden.

“Opportunity for such big units is very rare. It is difficult to underestimate the importance of these flagship stores.”

This desirability is borne out by the Arcadia Group agreeing to take 3,000sq m for a Topshop/Topman store and a further 2,900sq m for a Burton/Dorothy Perkins. Other high street names looking to move into the new space are relocating from existing units within Eldon Square, including River Island and New Look, which is taking on a 3,300sq m unit that will become its biggest UK store.

The development along Blackettbridge, which opened at the end of 2006, has both shops and restaurants, such as Wagamama and Strada which open out on to Old Eldon Square (which has benefited from a £500,000 makeover), creating a relaxed leisure space for weary shoppers.

Once finished, Eldon Square will offer the complete shopping experience in the heart of the city. As Breeden says: “Eldon Square contains most of the prime shopping in Newcastle. Its redevelopment is hugely important for both the jobs and economy of the city centre.” David Armstrong at Newcastle City Council agrees. “Eldon Square is extremely important in ensuring Newcastle remains competitive in the North East region,” he says. “The size and configuration of the spaces are not available at the moment elsewhere in the city.”

➺ 33

Stephenson Quarter Thirty years ago the Stephenson Quarter was bustling with industry, including the Stephenson works, started in the 19th century by Robert, son of George (inventor of the Rocket), and contemporary of Brunel. Now it’s a run-down, shabby area of disparate industrial buildings, cut off from the nearby city centre by the railway lines. But plans are afoot to turn this prime waterfront area, tucked between central station and the Tyne, into a mixed-use quarter, bringing life to this stretch of river.

The conservation area is home to many listed buildings including Robert Stephenson’s 1820s locomotive works. Part of this, 20 South Street, the grade II* listed drawing office, has already been converted, thanks to a Heritage Lottery Fund grant, into a museum dedicated to his work, and another section into office space for small companies, such as nano-technology companies, and designers. Now, the same developer, Silverlink, is planning to continue its transformation of the area with a £250 million development of 1,700sq m of offices, two hotels, 150 apartments, 3,600sq m of retail space, cafes and public spaces.

Phase one will include a 250-bed Crown Plaza four-star hotel, two office blocks, providing 1,800sq m of space, and a 344-space multistorey car park. Later phases will include conversion of five of the listed locomotive works buildings into a 40-to-60-bed boutique hotel and a centre for cultural industries.

Altogether, this 3ha scheme represents the biggest detailed planning application in the city for 20 years. Working with Silverlink on the scheme are two firms of architects – Waring and Nets and Malcolm Fraser, landscape architect Southern Green, urban design consultant Space Syntax, and main contractor Carillion.

Complications with leaseholds, however, mean it won’t be complete until about 2016.

The problem of access also remains. Newcastle’s impressive Central Station, to the north of Stevenson Quarter, is listed, so cannot be altered, a tunnel beneath it is prohibitively expensive, and a bridge would have to go a rather indirect route to the city centre.

Current solutions to the problem mainly involve the existing two tunnels, improving traffic flow and enhancing the area for pedestrians.

Scotswood Expo Newcastle is set to host the UK’s first ever neighbourhood expo in 2011, showcasing around 300 cutting-edge newly built homes and providing an international stage for discussion on urban living.

Inspired by European housing expos, the Scotswood Expo has two aims. “It’s not just a housing expo,” explains Tom Hutchinson, senior regeneration officer at Newcastle City Council. “This is also about neighbourhood renewal. Scotswood has suffered population decline, so we’re taking on the biggest challenge and hopefully creating something transformational. We want to harness the benefits of the housing expo, generating interest in Scotswood’s housing market as well as creating jobs and stimulating the local economy.”

The expo will promote international ideas and approaches to urban living, focusing on affordability and sustainability and debate will be encouraged on the best ways to deliver high-quality volume housing for mixed-income communities.

The 60ha site has been granted outline planning permission, a masterplan has been created by Urban Initiatives and now Newcastle City Council has whittled down the potential development partners to a shortlist of just three developers: Barratt Developments & Artisan H (including Keepmoat, Haslam Homes and Yuill Homes); Persimmon and Cheviot Housing Association; and Grainger and Places for People. Competitive dialogue will continue throughout 2008, with selected partners announced in December.

The new houses in Scotswood featured in the expo are just the start of a major regeneration project for the neighbourhood, which will eventually be home to 1,800 houses, community, retail and commercial facilities and new public spaces. It is hoped the redevelopment of the neighbourhood will encourage families to return to the area, which is just 7km from the city centre and will have a new school and improved public transport facilities.

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Pilgrim Street: A new vision for the historic heart of Newcastle

| Open spaces

| New hotels

| New shops

| City centre offices

| CafĂŠ culture

| Private apartments

| Fine dining

| Residential accommodation

For more information contact Mark Robinson, Development Director, Brookfield Europe on 0191 231 6010

North Tyneside North Tyneside Council is joining forces with Newcastle City Council and One NorthEast on an ambitious project to regenerate a 10km stretch of underused land on the north bank of the River Tyne.

Much of the huge 600ha site, once globally renowned for its shipbuilding – at its peak, the Tyne shipyards built 25% of the world’s shipping – now lies vacant or underused following the downfall of the industry in the area. Notwithstanding this decline, the area continues as a key employment sector for Tyne and Wear, attracting world class companies operating at the cutting edge of new technology. Interest in the area from marine and other industry sectors is growing steadily and the prospects are excellent for future development.

The significant scale of this project, which will have an unprecedented effect on the prosperity of the area, means completion may be some way off, but a considerable amount of consultation has already taken place and feasibility work has also been carried out on-site.

The area also includes the Hadrian’s Wall World Heritage site, which will be enhanced as part of the project.

A masterplan for the regeneration of the site is being formulated and within 12 months a regeneration strategy will be in place. It is anticipated that the developments on the north bank will be heavily focused on training and employment.

Wellbar Central Testament to the demand for high-quality office space in the city’s Gallowgate area, when Moonglade Holdings’ latest addition to Newcastle’s office sector Time Central (above) opened its doors in April, all seven floors were pre-let. Not surprisingly, Moonglade is already following up on its success by redeveloping neighbouring Wellbar House. Demolition of the landmark 1960s building started at the end of last summer and building work is now well under way. Once completed, in November 2009, the 10-storey office block will offer 10,000sq m of grade A office space as well as retail units on the ground floor and two basement car parks.

“We’ve built on what we learned with Time Central,” says Moonglade Holdings’ spokesman Richard Wood.

“We’re using the same architects but have increased the specification, this new building will offer the highest spec office space in Newcastle. I think the city is ready for an upgrade. A lot of national companies expect high-quality office space, something that Newcastle is lacking.

“Time Central was a groundbreaking project, putting office space of that quality in the Gallowgate area.

Its success proves that there is demand and we’re following it up with Wellbar Central, so called as it is in the heart of what we consider to be the central business district of Newcastle. There is definitely scope to expand the office quarter in Gallowgate. With such a lot of regeneration going on in the city, this area will look very different in five years’ time.”

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project update

Haymarket Hub Work is well under way on the redevelopment of one of the city’s busiest metro stations. Used by 120,000 passengers each week, Haymarket’s unassuming single-storey station is in the process of a dramatic transformation into a four-storey, steeland-glass encased hub.

When complete, in addition to the Metro station, the Haymarket will offer retail units on the ground floor (most of which are already let), a restaurant/bar on the first floor and 6,000sq m of office space on the upper floors.

Construction started in June 2007, but as the station has had to remain open throughout the development, logistics have been quite a challenge.

Piled foundations of between 30 and 50m are now in place, and the exterior steel structure framework is being constructed around the existing building,

enabling the station to remain open to passengers. Once complete, the old station will be removed.

The upgrade, which includes the installation of lifts and a third escalator as well as new colours and signage, is part of Nexus’s £600 million reinvigoration programme. The design will freshen up the station and create a more open, brighter environment for the six million passengers who pass through it each year, while making it accessible for all.

Ken Hunt, director at Closegate Developers, claims the Haymarket Hub is a 21st century building. “The design will achieve an iconic building at the northern gateway to the city,” he claims.

“The area around Northumberland Street needs further investment and hopefully Haymarket Hub will set new standards for design in the area.”

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Baltic Business Quarter Gateshead’s regeneration has seen the creation of a string of striking cultural icons, such as the BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art and the Sage Gateshead, which have had a revolutionary effect. Now this is spreading to the rest of the town.

Away from the river, slightly south of the Gateshead Millennium Bridge, a huge derelict site is gradually being moulded into the region’s premier commerce location.

Investment of around £300 million will transform this disused space into a 21ha urban business district, creating an estimated 7,000 new jobs.

Baltic Business Quarter will benefit from its desirable location, something David Leeder, head of major initiatives team at Gateshead Council, recognises as one of the development’s strongest selling points.

“It is an easy sell,” he says.

“We see it as being the best location for business in the region. It is within walking distance from Gateshead town centre, and within walking distance from Newcastle city centre. It sells itself in some ways.”

The great location has already tempted two key bodies to move into the area: Gateshead College, already in situ, and the Open University, whose campus building is under way. These two will create an anchor for the other commercial buildings on site, and ensure its success, even 38

in today’s testing conditions.

While Gateshead’s Tyneside developments were all about physical regeneration, the focus at Baltic Quays is very much about job creation and business.

Leeder says: “We have always seen the connection between the Quays, being very high profile, and the Baltic Business Quarter.

It is a very large development opportunity and the potential to bring good quality jobs into the area is really quite unusual for the centre of a large conurbation.”

project update

Gateshead town centre The dramatic regeneration of the River Tyne’s south bank has significantly improved Gateshead’s national and international reputation. But only a brief walk away, the town centre still trails behind the standard set by Gateshead Quays. Help is at hand though, as the second wave of the town’s regeneration is set to begin.

To increase Gateshead’s contribution to the wider region and ensure the town centre retains its identity, Gateshead’s core will become a sustainable mixed-use hub, with greatly improved quality of design, facilities and services, and the standards set by the river mirrored in the town centre.

Among the many developments, Trinity Square stands out for its scale and the changes it will bring. The 3.5ha mixed-use development, to

become a central feature of the town centre, will bring new retail opportunities, as well as a 120-bed hotel, workspace and leisure options. It will be progressing through planning in summer 2008, and is due for completion in 2011.

David Leeder, head of major initiatives team at Gateshead Council, is overseeing the town’s continued renaissance. He sees Trinity Square as a significant element of the task in hand. “When completed, Trinity Square will be a major step forward in basic retail provision for the local area.

“The main aim of the work is to create a much better centre for the needs of local residents, as it’s a natural focal point for quite a large population. It is also part of central Tyneside: we are increasingly looking, with Newcastle Council, at the urban core of the region as a single entity.”

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Ouseburn Valley Newcastle’s alternative cultural quarter is becoming even more of an ‘urban village’, as its economic base is strengthened, but its quirky, bohemian feel maintained. Joining such popular projects as 36 Lime Street, an artists’ studios cooperative housed in an old flax mill, the hugely popular Seven Stories national centre of children’s literature, and Ouseburn Farm environmental centre, on the site of an old leadworks, are new schemes winning wider acclaim.

Two projects by Mosedale Gillat Architects won three Lord Mayor’s Design Awards last year. Collectively, the conversion of the Formes Woods Pottery into commercial space and a nearby building in Upper Steenberg’s Yard (full of listed warehouses and factories) into a high-quality printer, Northern Print, won a special regeneration award for their contribution to the Ouseburn Valley’s character. Individually, the Northern Print project won the smallscale development award for its use of restricted space in a listed building, and Woods Pottery won in the refurbishment/ 40

conservation category for the way it linked the historic building, previously derelict in places, with contemporary architectural interventions.

Also in Upper Steenberg’s Yard, Priority Sites has started work on the Media Exchange, a £5.2 million, 2,300sq m office scheme, with nine office suites from 130sq m to 320sq m, designed specifically to attract creative SMEs. The scheme, which will create or safeguard 83 jobs, is scheduled for completion in December 2008.

Next steps for the valley concentrate on encouraging riverside development.

As the Ouseburn is tidal, its water level varies throughout the day, from lapping high up the river walls, to revealing unsightly, and smelly, mudflats. To keep the river at the same level all day, a barrage is being built, for completion in July 2009, a few metres up from where the Ouseburn meets the Tyne.

Away from the river, at the northern gateway to the valley, the first phase on the Portland Green site, a £40 million redevelopment of offices, shops and

houses, has gained planning permission.

Developed by Metnor, and designed

by Faulkner Brown architects, the scheme’s BREEAM standards mean it will be one of the most sustainable office schemes in the region. The first phase will include 3,700sq m of office space for small companies, reflecting the entrepreneurial feel of the valley.

The 3ha development will link the northern end of the Ouseburn to the city centre fringe, with the masterplan recreating the urban fabric around Portland Road. Consent is being sought for some alterations to the original plan, so a start date on site is uncertain.

To the east, on the borders with Byker, another project vital to the area is St Lawrence Square, where 97 new homes will replace three blocks of deckaccess flats, which had become rundown and semi-derelict.

As part of the council’s policy of setting a high bar for design quality, this is an exemplar scheme, won at design competition in 2006 by Nottinghambased Letts Wheeler Architects. n

project update

Spanning the country

Priority Sites specialises in the development of new business space in partnership with landowners, regional development agencies, local authorities and businesses.

If you know of land with development potential please contact Amanda Oliver on 01977 520 505.

Priority Sites is currently active in the following areas of the North East: Media Exchange, Ouseburn Valley, Newcastle Esther Court, Wansbeck Business Park, Ashington Apollo Court, Monkton South Business Park, South Tyneside

www.prioritysites.co.uk A different kind of property development company_

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9 September 2008 Hotel Russell, London W1 9am - 4.30pm The first ever London Major Projects Forum takes place this September.

Benefit from your peers’ experience developing major regeneration and infrastructure projects, by discovering how the lessons learned can be applied in your area. The forum – developed by and for local authority project managers – will cover everything from effective lobbying and project management through to major programme funding and sustainable development.

Topics will include: ● How to work with London’s new mayor, the LDA’s new London board and the HACA’s new London regional director ● Updates from Crossrail, the East London Line and engaging with TfL ● The Commons Select Committee Inquiry into the planning skills shortage ● A better consultation process in London - how to avoid costly delays ● New-style PPP funding and assetbacked vehicles ● Economic regeneration via high-rise and high density development - London’s ‘Tall Buildings Initiative’

Keynote speakers include: ● Sir Simon Milton, deputy mayor for planning and policy, Greater London Authority ●C linton Leeks, OBE, corporate affairs director, Cross London Rail Links ● Stephen Benton, director, World City, London Councils ● Jonathan Joseph, development director, BrentCrossCricklewood Partnership ● Liz Peace, chief executive, British Property Federation ● Stuart Yeatman, project director, John Laing Projects and Development ● Ian Fry, programme director, King’s Cross Central, Network Rail ● Tony Middleton, director of regeneration and infrastructure, London Borough of Croydon

All project management and development professionals welcome. The main focus will be on London boroughs, but other UK local authorities are most welcome to join in the discussions and benefit from any of the sessions.

To register visit www.londonmajorprojects.co.uk/register OR contact delegate manager kirsten@3foxinternational.com OR call 0207 978 6840 ASAP.

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