Serving the Teesside Business Community | 15
Dave Budd says the Investment Prospectus will make Middlesbrough“ the city centre of a successful city region”.
Tony Parkinson:“ Middlesbrough is open for business and those who have invested recently are making the kind of profit they projected.”
The seven connected component parts to the Investment Prospectus:
Middlehaven The exciting ambition is to create a major leisure destination at Middlehaven, focused around a £ 30m snow centre, developed by Cool Runnings( NE), situated between Middlesbrough College and Temenos.
The Council will also make £ 9.6m of infrastructure investment to open up development opportunities in the area, with much confidence that restaurants, bars and further leisure projects will follow once building work to the snow centre gets underway.
Parkinson says:“ This is about making Middlehaven a major leisure destination. The snow centre is the big one as independent studies indicate it will attract a minimum of 2.25 million visitors a year because its catchment area is anything within an hour-and-a-half’ s drive.”
While it is hoped work will get underway on the snow centre within 12 months, the Council is also working on a scheme to replace the existing footbridge between the Riverside Stadium and Temenos with a road bridge, whilst also redesigning the road system to help open surrounding land for development.
Centre Square This element is led by the private development of 200,000-300,000 sq ft of new Grade A office accommodation alongside Teesside Law Courts, designed to help attract up to 2,000 service industry jobs to the town.
It also features the near £ 9m refurbishment of the Town Hall.
Budd says:“ The Tees Valley Combined Authority has a strategic economic plan that is majored on delivering 25,000 jobs to the region. Many of those jobs are city centre jobs – and developers and all expert reports make it clear those sort of jobs can only locate to Middlesbrough, in the new Grade A office development.
“ This will make Middlesbrough the city centre of a successful city region. This area needs a city centre, and we are it.”
Business and Enterprise The Council plans to grow the town’ s business base by attracting new commercial enterprises, primarily around a new Hemlington Grange Business Park in the south of the town, but also focusing on clustering similar businesses around the Advanced Manufacturing Park, opposite Riverside Park, on the back of success there for offshore specialists TWI.
The Railway and Historic Quarter With work getting underway on longawaited repairs to Middlesbrough Railway Station, supported by £ 2.7m of funding from Network Rail, the Council is now looking to create a masterplan to regenerate the station’ s immediate surroundings.
This will not only focus on attracting businesses to the Queen’ s Square area but will also provide much improved first impressions of the town as increasing numbers take advantage of between five and seven direct trains to and from London each day, starting from 2020, together with speedier connections to Newcastle and Leeds.
The University Quarter Teesside University’ s success story will reach a new high with the building of a 450-bed Student Village, connecting the area formerly known as Gresham with the Campus Heart.
Media and Innovation Village Still being scoped with the aim of seeing real progress by around 2020, this development would see the existing bus station relocated to make way for a new centre for leisure and cultural activity on the south end of the town, with Cleveland College of Art and Design switching from its long-term Linthorpe base to a more central area.
Growth and Prosperity with Housing The building of 5,500 high-quality new homes, predominantly in the south of the town, will not only create an additional £ 5m in annual council tax but provide investment capital from the sale of land. Perhaps most importantly, it will create real options to help Middlesbrough retain successful Teessiders and those who have graduated from the university.