Member Article

New premises for RTC North will bring North East innovation clusters under one roof

RTC North has announced it will move to new Sunderland headquarters to allow it to invest in a new regional centre for innovation, business growth and training.

The move from Hylton Park to Loftus House, Colima Avenue, on Sunderland Enterprise Park will take place on April 22nd and will see all RTC central service and project teams move to the new building later this month.

Founded on Chester Road in Sunderland as the Regional Technology Centre by Chief Executive Gordon Ollivere MBE in 1989, the company has been a regional focus for innovation ever since and today has offices in Leeds and Daresbury in the North West.

The company currently delivers government and European funded business support programmes including Enterprise Europe Network, Innovate 2 Succeed, Designing Better Business and NHS Innovations North. RTC also supports the skills agenda and has launched a short course business masterclass programme and is working with schools to promote Science Technology Engineering and Maths.

The building will also be home to co-located industry clusters, the North East Process Industry Cluster (NEPIC), Health Network North, the North East Automotive Alliance (NEAA) and Design Network North.

The new 20,000 sq ft’ premises is double the size of its previous building and will see RTC invest in different phases of development. By July 2016, the company will have completed the ground floor development of a fully equipped ‘Training Zone’ and 150 person theatre style conference space.

The company is working with interior design and build partners Ben Johnson Ltd. on shaping ‘Phase 3’ of the development, which will see the first floor of the building being converted to executive workspace for professional service companies bringing ‘high end’ skills to Sunderland.

Founder and CEO, Gordon Ollivere MBE, said: “This move is a really exciting development for the North East. In one place we are bringing together structured support for business, professional services, networking opportunities with industry clusters and a high quality space to host training and events.”

Andrea Winders, Executive Director of Enterprise Investment at Sunderland City council, added: “RTC has been a cornerstone of business advice and support for innovative companies for more than 25 years. It’s great to hear the company is making new investments in Sunderland and this is an exciting new development.

“Projects such as this reflect how the city’s business infrastructure has developed, how it is developing, and this is a vote of confidence for further growth in our business community.”

Naylors Office Agency was instructed to market the property by Helena Biosciences. Naylors acted on behalf of the same client in securing the previous letting at Loftus House to the NHS who occupied the building for 10 years and vacated in 2014.

Simon Taylor, director at Naylors, said: “We are delighted to announce this letting which is a very successful outcome for all of the parties involved. Loftus House is a detached, two-storey office building located within an established business park, providing RTC North with substantial space in which they can expand in the future.’