Gateshead Retail Development Moves On
Plans for the scheme close to the Felling bypass include a discount food retailer and a micropub or brewery. A developer has signalled its intent to forge ahead with a £20m Tyneside retail and leisure scheme with the potential to create more than 260 jobs, after revising the plans in the wake of Covid-19.
Darlington based Fintry Estates first outlined plans to develop a 3.3 hectare site in Gateshead back in 2018, unveiling proposals for new shops and restaurants on the site which has largely remained empty for more than 15 years.
Plans submitted in March 2019 to Gateshead Council have now been re-shaped, to help support the economic growth of the emerging Tyneside business quarter, and to reflect the new economic realities resulting from Covid-19.
Originally representing investment of £8.6m, the revised project will now cost around £20m and feature a discount food-store, additional retail units, garden centre, micro-brewery/pub, drive-thru coffee shop and a gym.
It is also estimated that the scheme could create around 138 jobs as well as 125 jobs during construction.
Changes include bringing the eastern edge of the development into the site, to reserve land which may be needed for future improvements to the surrounding highway network.
The new scheme includes fewer parking spaces – 304 as opposed to 450 – a reduction in the retail space, plus a re-design of the proposed micro-brewery/pub to provide a landmark entrance building to the development from the A184 Felling Bypass.
Graham Wilson, of Fintry Estates, said: “Our proposals would not only regenerate the Albany Road site but would also help to stimulate interest in sites elsewhere within the council’s Baltic Business Quarter. Investment such as this is critical given the need for economic recovery in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic.”
The revised scheme now includes a discount foodstore of 1,900 sqm, two other large format retail units with 3,500 sqm in total plus a garden centre, two smaller retail or service units totalling 230 sqm, a micro-brewery/pub-restaurant, drive-thru coffee shop, gym and 304 car parking spaces.