A major hotel development on the Gateshead Quayside that neighbours feared would leave them living in darkness is set to be relocated in a bid to cut costs, it has emerged.
The Chronicle revealed earlier this year how residents of the Baltic Quays apartments held major worries about an 11-storey hotel, planned as part of the visions for a new Quayside arena and conference centre, looming over their homes. It was claimed in March that the dual-branded Novotel and Ibis would leave the flats next door feeling “like a Victorian prison”.
But, in a surprise announcement on Monday afternoon, the developers behind the £300m riverside complex unveiled proposals to relocate the controversial hotel to a new site behind the proposed arena – and build a park where it was originally meant to be. The news comes amid uncertainty over the future of the arena development, to be known as The Sage, with Gateshead Council having asked the Government for £20m of Levelling Up funding to help cover escalating building costs.
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Local authority bosses said the reworked proposals would be “more cost efficient” as they grapple with the economic fallout of Covid-19 and the war in Ukraine. Developers Ask Real Estate and PATRIZIA UK added that the changes were being made due to “operational and constructional reasons”, rather than in reaction to local residents’ complaints, as they announced the launch of a public consultation on revised plans to instead build a nine-storey hotel on vacant land at the corner of Hawks Road and Quarryfield Road.
Relieved neighbour Peter Bauckman, who has lived at the Baltic Quays since 2003 and is a director of the building’s management company, said the redesign was “really, really good news”. Of the proposal to instead build a public park on land the hotel had been earmarked for, he added: “That is what it always should have been used for.”
After Gateshead Council granted approval for a larger version of the hotel in March this year, campaigners had pleaded for it to be redesigned to protect its neighbours.
The developers say they intend to submit a new planning application for the relocated hotel by the end of the year, with a public consultation running until November 16. They said that the new hotel, next to a 1,000 space multi-storey car park under construction for Gateshead Council, would be nine storeys tall and contain 344 bedrooms, adding that the new park would bring “valuable green space into the area and enhancing biodiversity”.
It has been suggested since this summer that, if the council is unable to secure new funding for the arena and conference centre, the huge plans would have to be redesigned and scaled back. However, local authority bosses have repeatedly insisted to the Local Democracy Reporting Service that the major riverside attraction will be built, following concerns that spiralling inflation could put it at risk.
It will feature a 12,500-capacity arena that will replace the Utilita Arena, a conference centre, plus new bars, restaurants, public space and walkways along the Quayside With Sage PLC having bought the naming rights for the new complex, the existing Sage Gateshead music centre next door is due to be renamed.
A Gateshead Council spokesperson said: “The project, like other major schemes, has not been isolated from international crises including Covid-19, and escalating construction costs as a result of the war in Ukraine. The design team have been conducting a full review of the project costs to realise cost efficiencies.
“The design review has led to the proposed relocation of the two hotels currently on the site, to currently vacant land within Baltic Quarter. This new design is more cost efficient but also improves the original by introducing a new park adjacent to the conference and exhibition centre, for the benefit of both residents and visitors to enjoy.
“The combination of the green space and the campus being heated by heat from local mine water will aid Gateshead Council target of achieving its net zero target.”
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