Plans to move a controversial hotel away from the Gateshead riverside are set to be sent to council bosses this week.
It emerged in late October that an 11-storey hotel proposed as part of a new arena and conference centre development on the Quayside was going to be relocated, in an effort to cut costs. The dual-branded Ibis and Novotel had been the source of ire from its potential neighbours, who had claimed earlier this year that it would tower over their flats and leave them so dark that it would feel “like a Victorian prison”.
But developers Ask:PATRIZIA are now set to move the hotel to a new site behind the proposed arena complex, which is due to be built between the Sage and the Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art. They have confirmed that they will submit new plans to Gateshead Council this week to instead build a £48m nine-storey hotel behind the arena site, at the corner of Quarryfield Road and Hawks Road.
Read More: Gateshead Quayside arena hotel that angered neighbours to be moved as controversial plans redrawn
A spokesperson for the developers said: “This is a prestigious project that will not only create new jobs and provide a boost for a great city centre location, but also offer a quality hospitality location where people can stay and experience the city and wider region at its best.”
There have been serious concerns about the future of the new arena project, which has seen its costs spiral amid problems caused by the Covid pandemic and the war in Ukraine. Council bosses are still waiting to find out if they have been successful in a second attempt to win £20m from the Government’s Levelling Up Fund to help keep the £300m scheme on track
The authority has repeatedly insisted that the arena and conference centre will be built, and said last month that doing so without the hotel bolted onto it was “more cost efficient”. A public park is now earmarked for the patch of land where the hotel was originally meant to go, at the eastern end of the site next to the Balitc Quay flats.
Ask:PATRIZIA says the revised hotel plan will have 344 guest bedrooms across nine storeys, 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.
They added that the hotel, which could be approved by the council’s planning committee in early 2023, would create more than 75 full time jobs and provide almost £1m per year in additional local authority revenue.
Alex Kennedy, a senior planner at agents Lichfields who is overseeing the application, said: “This is a great regeneration project that represents a significant contribution to the vitality and vibrancy of an important local economic sector, bringing a vacant site back into use. It’s in a good location, with excellent nearby transport links as well as being within easy walking distance to a range of first-class facilities and services.”
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