The future’s orange – and green and blue...

Mar 10 2008 by Graeme King, The Journal

A RADICAL new approach to developing key sites in Newcastle and Gateshead is being launched today as the leaders of the local authorities aim to sell the area at the world’s biggest property conference.

A map with 10 coloured areas, taking in hundreds of acres, has been produced to illustrate the opportunities available to property companies and occupiers at the MIPIM conference in Cannes on the French Riviera, starting tomorrow.

With more than 25,000 delegates attending the event, the leaders hope to attract the biggest global names to Tyneside.

The 10 sites outlined on the partners’ marketing materials contain a mixture of wide open, ex-industrial, brownfield land ready to be built on, and more complex inner city areas where any development will be in smaller pockets.

The new approach is being partly driven by the formation of a City Development Company, intended to promote property sites across Tyneside.

In Newcastle, sites stretch from the former Scottish & Newcastle Tyne Brewery site close to the city centre, to the ‘Forth Yard’ land to the west of the Redheugh Bridge, and out to the east, where 264 acres are earmarked in the Ouseburn/Spillers Quay area for mixed use, led by housing.

In Gateshead, council leaders are seeking investors, developers and occupiers for sites across the town centre, and in the Baltic Business Quarter and Gateshead Quays.

The local authorities, along with their Newcastle Gateshead Initiative counterparts who are assisting with marketing, have been criticised in some quarters for putting so much time, effort and money into attending MIPIM.

John Shipley, leader of Newcastle City Council, explained why so much effort was being expended.

He said: “With so many other major cities competing at MIPIM it is vitally important that we have a presence there. Because if we are not there, the harsh truth is that the investment and the jobs will go elsewhere.

“This is the event used by developers and finance houses and pension fund companies to see where to invest and we will miss out on all of that if we are not there. We cannot simply sit back and wait for them to come to us.

“This year we have a particularly strong presence because we are launching the CDC and showing investors what they can get from Newcastle and Gateshead together.”

Coun Shipley said events this year have emphasised the need to diversify the local economy and property market. He said: “The crisis at Northern Rock has once again given us a lesson in not resting on our laurels, assuming there will always be the same big businesses here, with the jobs they bring.

“It is no longer wise to depend on a single big business to provide high levels of employment. We have some absolutely critical advantages available to us. We know our retail capacity can grow to the extent of 75,000sq m (800,000sq ft), and we have 864 acres (350 hectares) of brownfield development land available

“Also, nearly 90,000 people are coming in to Newcastle to work each day and we want to make it easier for them to live here. We ideally want to see Newcastle’s population grow by 7% over the next decade. That means more than 1,000 new homes a year need to be built.”

John Miller, head of sustainable development at Newcastle City Council, explained the approach to one of the city’s key targets at MIPIM – Science Central. He said: “It’s going to be an extension of Newcastle city centre, though it has to be science led. The components will be commercial, residential, student accommodation, retail, leisure.

“There are different delivery options – we could say to a developer that we wanted ‘x’ thousand square feet of research use, with the rest of the scheme to cross-subsidise it. Or at the other extreme, the partnership (council, One NorthEast and Newcastle University) hold on to the site, and release it block by block. Between the extremes, there are lots of other options, with joint ventures, etc.

“What we are doing is assessing all the options with the consultants at King Sturge. By early summer, we will have a preferred option.”

Derek Quinn, director of development and enterprise at Gateshead Council, said: "We have ambitious plans over the next 20 years to make the centre of Gateshead a centre worthy of our intentions to become a city – but that will only happen if we can persuade investors that we have clear plans for the future so they have the confidence to put their money into Gateshead instead of somewhere else.

“Most of the major cities in Britain and Europe will be there at MIPIM to do business with the leading national and international developers, investors and property agents.

"If we want to get major multi-national companies investing hundreds of millions of pounds and creating thousands of new jobs in Gateshead, we will not get it by sitting in Gateshead waiting for them to come and find us and realise what we have to offer – we have to go out and sell ourselves on an international stage.”

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