Estates opening office in centre of Newcastle

Quayside House in Newcastle, which is now owned by Northumberland Estates.

The new premises were recently purchased by Northumberland Estates from Standard Life and will become the new city centre base later this month.

And it will result in the relocation of 12 members of staff from Alnwick to Tyneside.

Moving to the Quayside premises will be the commercial property, investment and planning teams, plus associated admin staff. Those working in the traditional estate and tourism divisions of the business will continue to be based in Alnwick.

“This is an exciting move for us,” said Rory Wilson, agent for Northumberland Estates. “For decades, the business had a Newcastle office, but times change and it became surplus to requirements.

“Given our focus on further expansion of the property investment portfolio, much of which is located here in the North East, it now makes sense for us to have a Newcastle base once again.”

Quayside House was purchased by the Estates both as a valuable addition to the existing commercial property portfolio and to provide the much-needed additional office space.

Located on the River Tyne and directly opposite the Baltic, it comprises 15,000 sq ft (1,394 sq m) of office space. Existing tenants including KPMG, the Clydesdale and Yorkshire Bank are to remain in situ, alongside the Estates, with any additional space to be re-let.

Mr Wilson said: “The prime location of the property made it an ideal purchase for us, both as a central base for the business, with easy access to all of the professional services we regularly use in the city, and as an investment property.

“It sits well alongside our existing assets such as Wynyard Park, Tyne Tunnel Trading Estate and our continuing development around Northumberland Park and the A19 corridor.

“This move is just one aspect of long-term plans to further grow the business and underlines the extent of our continued commitment to the region for the long term.

“Although we will be operating from a dual base, a significant part of the business will remain in Alnwick, and we will continue to be a large employer in the town.

“Realistically, we had simply outgrown the Castle offices and the move will allow the Alnwick staff more space, plus we will be looking to upgrade facilities there following the move.”