Plans to build a major new hotel in Gateshead have been approved – after the previously controversial development was stripped from a £330m Quayside complex.
A dual-branded Ibis and Novotel had been part of a massive arena and conference centre due to be built on the riverside, but had infuriated neighbours who feared it would leave them living in darkness. But it was revealed last year that the hotel element of the arena was being scrapped as developers tried to cut costs on that site, with Ask:PATRIZIA moving the proposed £48m hotel to an empty plot nearby.
On Wednesday morning, Gateshead Council gave the green light for a nine-storey hotel to be built at the corner of Quarryfield Road and Hawks Road. Designs for the 344-bedroom development were unanimously approved by the local authority’s planning committee without any debate.
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Two local residents wrote to the council in support of the scheme, praising it for removing the “overbearing” 11-storey hotel that was proposed to be bolted on to the side of the arena complex. It was feared that the original plans would have “caused harm to the homes, health and residential amenity” of neighbours at the Baltic Quay flats.
At the time when the hotel’s relocation was announced, there were worries about the cost of building the arena because of spiralling inflation – particularly affecting the price of steel. The development, which will be known as The Sage, has since been awarded a £20m Levelling Up fund grant from the Government.
Ask:PATRIZIA says the revised hotel plan will also include a gym, restaurants, bars and business meeting rooms. A network of pedestrian footpaths and crossings is also proposed to link the site to Gateshead Quays and the town centre.
The council said that the hotel would create more than 75 new hospitality jobs and accommodate more than 200,000 visitors every year. Peter Udall, the authority’s strategic director for economy, innovation and growth, added: “We are delighted to see the Novotel and Ibis hotels receive planning permission as they are an essential part of the delivery of the Gateshead Quays developments and The Sage – an Arena and International Conference Centre.
"With the transformational impact on the visitor economy that these developments will bring, the region will need more accommodation to provide for the increased visitor numbers. This marks another milestone towards the delivery of these great regeneration schemes.”
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