Building work on a £330m arena on the Gateshead Quayside could start this autumn, council bosses hope.
A massive new complex including a 12,500-capacity arena and an international conference centre is due to be built on a patch of prime riverside land between the Sage Gateshead concert hall and the Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art. The project was awarded, at the second time of asking, a £20m grant from the Government’s Levelling Up fund in January after being hit with spiralling costs, amid fears that the inflation crisis could threaten major developments across the country.
Plans for the “world class” site have recently been redrawn to get rid of a controversial hotel, which was attached to the side of the centre and angered neighbours, and construction is yet to begin in earnest since the land was cleared to prepare it for redevelopment. After councillors granted planning permission for a relocated version of that hotel on Wednesday morning, the local authority confirmed it is still waiting for developers Ask: PATRIZIA to submit a planning application for the redesigned arena site.
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A spokesperson told the Local Democracy Reporting Service that the application is expected “imminently” and that it should come before Gateshead Council’s planning committee in the summer. If approved, then it would mean construction starting in the autumn. The redrawing of the arena plans has seen the 11-storey hotel replaced by a park, which will act as a link between the Quayside and the Baltic Business Quarter.
It had originally been hoped that the huge facility would have been ready to open this year, before being pushed back to 2024 and then again to 2025. The complex will be known as The Sage, with Sage PLC having bought the naming rights for it. That means that the existing Sage Gateshead next door is due to be renamed.
The new arena will replace Newcastle’s Utilita Arena, while the development also includes art exhibition space, bars and restaurants, and new walkways and public space around the Quayside. Gateshead Council confirmed that it is in talks with the Government over the funding conditions for the Levelling Up grant, which it says will be spent by March 2025.
The relocated hotel, a dual-branded Ibis and Novotel, will now be built on a nearby plot at the corner of Quarryfield Road and Hawks Road. Residents of the Baltic Quay apartments had previously complained that the original hotel plans would leave them living in darkness.
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