Former brewery given a four-star future

Jan 29 2009 by Graeme King, The Journal

THE former home of Scottish & Newcastle breweries is to be turned into a four-star hotel after a Canadian company bought the striking 13-storey block.

Northland Properties, based in Vancouver, has acquired the Gallowgate building in a multi-million pound deal from Liverpool-based developer Downing.

Now it plans to completely refurbish the structure and develop a 169-room hotel known as the Sandman Signature, which will boast some fantastic views of Newcastle city centre.

The hotel is expected to create 150 jobs when it opens for business in summer 2011. It will be the start of a European expansion by Northland, which is the largest privately owned hotel group in Canada with 35 properties across the country.

The deal with Northland further boosts the 600,000sq ft Downing Plaza development on the S&N brewery site which has already signed up Newcastle University Business School as a tenant and is finalising terms with another hotel operator Accor.

Mitch Gaglardi, director of Sandman Hotel Group UK, said: “Our company is excited to be bringing the Sandman Signature brand to Newcastle, and to the UK.  We are in the unique position to be expanding, and Gallowgate provides us with an ideal site in a viable marketplace.

“Newcastle presented us with characteristics that we found unique in the UK, characteristics like the population of the city, its level of autonomy in the region, its business and tourist draw and, of course, favourable market conditions.”

Andrew Dixon, chief executive of Newcastle Gateshead Initiative (NGI), said: “It’s a really iconic site and it’s fantastic news to get international hotel investment coming into the city. Tourism and the hotel sector is one thing which will help us through the current economic climate.”

Mr Dixon said NGI had played a role in bringing Northland to Newcastle by showing executives around various potential sites and providing tourism statistics and hotel occupancy research.

The news of the Northland investment comes just days after Jurys Inn announced it was to build a new 200-bed hotel on the Gateshead quayside, and the Staybridge Suites long stay hotel is close to opening on Gibson Street, close to the Newcastle Quayside. Other hotels coming to Newcastle include the Crowne Plaza planned for the Stephenson Quarter behind Newcastle Central Station and a Holiday Inn Express to be built next to the Baltic Business Quarter, where developers Terrace Hill are also aiming to add a hotel to their plans. Recent figures show the value of tourism to the North East economy has jumped by 30% in the last five years to be worth almost £4bn annually.

The figures from regional development agency One NorthEast also show the number of people directly employed by tourism shot up by 14.5% to 60,775 in 2007, and that an extra million visitors stayed overnight in the region, a rise of 12% to nine million.

Councillor Nick Kemp, in whose Newcastle Westgate ward the new hotel will stand, said: “We need four and five-star hotels if we are going to attract people to the city and the wider region. This is also a great opportunity to bring a rather ugly building into modern use.”

Neil Osborne, a director of property agents storeys:ssp, who acted for Downing in the sale to Northland, said: “This is tremendous news for the city, and the Downing Plaza development.

“It reinforces the view that the Gallowgate area has now established itself as the prime commercial development area of the city. This sale shows that Newcastle is able to buck the national trend in these difficult times.”

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