Proposals to invest £60m into two towers of housing at the heart of a Newcastle city centre science and business park are set to be unveiled next week.
Newcastle Helix – a 24-acre partnership between Newcastle City Council, Legal & General and Newcastle University – is rapidly taking shape close to the city centre, with office and research space set across a range of buildings including Spark, The Biosphere and the first property to be completed, The Core.
Plans for the site also include hundreds of new homes, to attract and retain a growing talent pool of skilled workers to the region. Now developers are set to forge ahead with housing plans, through the creation of two towering structures which will provide 316 apartments around a new public space.
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Residents of the build-to-rent buildings will get access to a 24-hour concierge, co-working space, residents lounge, private dining rooms, external terraces and a gym. A retail and leisure facility will also be created on the ground floor which will be open to the public.
The tallest of the two towers will be 26 storeys high and at 90m will fall just below the height of nearby Hadrian’s Tower. The height of the shorter tower is 63m and will have 18 storeys.
Plans for the scheme are being drawn up by Ryder Architecture and Lichfields’ Newcastle office, and are expected to be submitted before Christmas. Ahead of their submission, an event will be held at The Catalyst where nearby businesses, residents and Helix tenants can learn more about the proposed scheme, which is set to become a focal point for the entire development. The managed apartments will have other on site facilities for residents, with design and landscaping works to complement the success of recent Helix developments.
Plans for a housing scheme bankrolled by the institutional investor were first mentioned earlier this year, when Andrew Kail, CEO of Legal & General Retirement Institutional (LGRI), announced additional investment during a visit to the city. At the time, he said L&G was keen to back further developments at the site, to follow on from the success of its investment into offices schemes Spark and Lumen, which would include £60m on a build-to-rent housing scheme.
L&G first pledged investment into the science park in 2016, moving forward with £65m plans for office blocks The Lumen and Spark – at the time, the largest property deal in the city for decades. John Seager, estates director for the Helix partnership, said the event on December 15 will give those interested the chance to share their views on the scheme.
He added: “One of the important things about the Helix site is that we can use it to attract skilled people and retain them in the region, and part of that means bringing them accommodation that can move into straight away. This is the next phase of the development, a build-to-rent scheme to appeal to a market that’s after high-specification rental accommodation in the city centre, and it forms part of the wider vision to create a vibrant place for living, working and collaborating.”
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