Member Article

£11.2 million science development quarter opened in Newcastle city centre

With the opening of ground-breaking new building The Core, Newcastle’s multi-million pound Science Central development is established as a new quarter of the city centre.

The Core is an £11.2 million building which has been funded through the European Union Regional Development Fund 2007-2013 (ERDF), Regional Growth Fund and Newcastle City Council.

It provides contemporary office space for firms working on a range of future city challenges including energy, transport, big data and cloud computing.

The Newcastle City Council owned building is managed by Creative Space Management.

At opening, the building is already 90% pre-let to tenants, including Urban Foresight, a consultancy for urban ecosystems, transport and energy sectors and Axivity, a firm that has relocated from York and creates movement sensors.

The building will also house nationally significant academic and industry research partnerships.

Features include a four-storey living wall, bee hotels, planted sedum roofs, rainwater harvesting and a series of adjoining public squares, all of which resulted in a recent sustainability ‘excellent’ award.

Leader of Newcastle City Council, Nick Forbes, said: “I’m delighted that the landmark building on Science Central is being opened both on time and on budget, bringing to life a brand new part of the city for the first time in nearly two decades.

“The Core is a prime example of how Newcastle is developing as a city, and planning for the future needs of the businesses that want to locate here.

“The building provides tenants with a modern, sustainable working environment which has helped to attract more and better jobs to the North East as businesses look to the region as a competitive and skilled place to invest in.”

Vice-Chancellor of Newcastle University, Professor Chris Brink, said: “The opening of The Core marks a key milestone in the vision that the partnership has for Science Central to build a smart, sustainable city which links energy, transport and digitalinfrastructure in an urban context.

“It also demonstrates very vividly how Newcastle University acts as an anchor institution in the city.”

Director of Creative Space Management, Toby Hyam, said: “We’ve been overwhelmed with demand for space at The Core.

“Companies want to be a part of the new community that is emerging at Science Central, not least because of the scale of investment in research facilities that Newcastle University is making for the Institute of Sustainability and the Digital Institute.

“The crossover between technology and the real challenges that growing cities are facing is particularly interesting to our clients and several see the potential for partnership work which will create new markets and products.”

Regional director of Faithful+Gould which provided project management services, Mike Foggon, said: “The project has been an outstanding example in collaborative working with the client, contractor, and design team working together proactively to deliver this high quality, sustainable project within budget.”