by David Sands
Newcastle Quayside Developments, the joint development company between Shearwater Property Holdings and Stanley Miller Holdings, have been selected by Tyne & Wear Development Corporation to develop the city’s East Quayside site.
The £100m riverside project on a 25-acre site stretching from the Tyne Bridge to the River Ouseburn was awarded to NQD after a competition with Brookmount and John Laing: a survey among visitors to a public exhibition revealed that a substantial majority favoured NQD’s scheme.
The project will include 135,000 sq ft of shopping, 224,800 sq ft of offices, a five-star, 200-bed hotel, an exhibition centre, a themed heritage centre and boat feature, over 300 homes and parking for 1,658 cars.
The main shopping, leisure and office content, with the hotel, will be centred on a large public square. Some of the existing buildings will be refurbished and the shopping mix will be of specialised traders with a strong emphasis on restaurants, bistros, wine bars and coffee shops.
The developers own 7 acres of the site, Tyne & Wear Development Corporation owns 9 acres, while the remainder is in about 24 different ownerships.
Preliminary work should begin next summer and the project, which will attract public sector grants totalling £23m, will take five years to complete.
Architects are Hadfield Cawkwell Davidson & Partners. Phillips Brown & Co are development consultants and have been retained as letting agents with Storey Sons & Parker.
