£3m creative hub in County Durham town nears opening

A new £3m creative industries centre in Hartlepool is nearing completion.

Called The BIS - ‘creating Businesses through Innovation and Skills’ - it stands in the refurbished and enlarged Grade II-listed former Post Office building in Whitby Street and will be opening this spring.

The conversion - funded by the Tees Valley Combined Authority - is part of a wider Hartlepool Borough Council initiative to transform the Church Street area into an ‘Innovation and Skills Quarter’.

Cllr Kevin Cranney, chair of the council’s regeneration services committee, said: “It’s fantastic to see the building so near to completion.

“The BIS will provide an ideal environment in which new or existing businesses in the creative industries can grow and flourish, creating more local jobs.

“It will also help to keep the fantastic young talent coming out of Hartlepool’s colleges in the town when they graduate.”

The Council will run the centre with the support of the Northern School of Art, which opened its new £8m campus in Church Street in 2017.

Cllr Christopher Akers-Belcher, leader of Hartlepool Borough Council, added: “The building is looking wonderful and will provide the perfect environment for business startups in the creative industries sector.

“Ultimately, The BIS will mean more students will be able to stay in Hartlepool to launch businesses instead of going elsewhere.”

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