Growing in size as well as potential

May 14 2008 by Graeme King, The Journal

Although Sunderland suffered from progressive industrial decline, it is successfully turning itself into a 21st century city, says Richard Farr.

WITH a population just short of 300,000, Sunderland is now the largest city between Edinburgh and Leeds and has enormous potential for continued economic growth.

Thanks to the vision of the urban regeneration company Sunderland arc and its partners One NorthEast, English Partnerships and Sunderland City Council, it is now harnessing this potential through some pioneering development efforts, to transform itself into one of the region’s key commercial centres.

To date, there has been extensive interest in the former Vaux brewery site which forms an integral part of the arc’s plans for the city going forward.

However, attention is now turning to a new project for the area – the proposed Stadium Village. This will form a mixed-use sporting environment encircling the existing 48,000 seater Stadium of Light.

Situated on the north bank of the River Wear, the proposed development site encompasses Stadium Park and the existing Sheepfolds Industrial Estate and extends to some 62 acres.

In conjunction with the city council and One NorthEast, Sunderland arc is now working to bring a plan to life which will include extensive leisure facilities, office and retail space, a hotel and housing. The vision is already taking shape and the first phase, the £19.9m Aquatic Centre, has recently opened with great success.

Home to a 50m Olympic-sized swimming pool and ‘wellness’ centre, it has recently been selected as a potential training camp for the 2012 Olympics.

The city council is now in the process of completing a development framework outlining continued plans for the site and it is expected that this will go out to public consultation by late summer. It is hoped that the adopted framework will be in place by January 2009.

These plans are intended to create further inward investment opportunities to benefit the city of Sunderland. Outline proposals include 55,000sqm of hotel & leisure space, 5,000sqm of retail and food premises along with 9,000sqm of office space, vastly improving Sunderland’s social and commercial offering.

All of this combined could create more than 1,300 job opportunities and 500 houses aimed at local families.

Sanderson Weatherall was appointed by land owner One NorthEast three years ago, and has been working with both them and Sunderland arc on acquiring properties on the site.

This process has included the recent relocation of Cottams Brush Manufacturers, which was achieved with minimal disruption to the business.

When complete, Stadium Village should bring the city to the fore, enhancing economic activity while positioning Sunderland as a major sporting venue for the North East and beyond.

Richard Farr is director of rating and compulsory purchase at Sanderson Weatherall’s Newcastle office.

These are plans to create further inward investment opportunities to benefit the city of Sunderland

Opportunity shops

Sunderland remains a strong retail destination despite easy access to the MetroCentre, Newcastle city centre and local towns such as South Shields says Mike Birkett.

CENTRED on Land Securities’ The Bridges shopping centre, Sunderland’s retail core embraces High Street West, Waterloo Street and Blandford Street. Clearly The Bridges is the dominant centre – it is large and under cover and has a good range of tenants paying Zone A rents in the region of £165 per sqft, just about half the value of Newcastle’s prime Northumberland Street.

What do retailers get for their money? Being a seaside town, one could argue that half its catchment area is covered by sea. It can only draw retail spend from the north, south and west where, respectively South Shields has a strong pull centred on King Street, the former coal towns of Ryhope, Murton, Easington and Seaham to the south offer little competition and to the west sits the large destination of Washington.

Within Sunderland itself is a diverse market with a population which is larger than Newcastle’s. So this alone is a good basis for retail. The market rumour that Tesco will take over units within Sunderland Retail Park could bring more retail spend into the city with a greater sense of activity, hopefully spilling over into the city centre.

The present concerns over retail spend and the demand for space suggests that prime rents will remain at the current level for another year.

Mike Birkett is director of retail agency at Atisreal.