Regent Centre is a large

business park A business park or office park is a designated area of land in which many office buildings are grouped together. These types of developments are often located in suburban areas where land and building costs are more affordable, and are typically ...

Gosforth Gosforth is a suburb of the city and metropolitan borough of Newcastle upon Tyne, England. It constituted a separate urban district from 1895 until 1974 before officially merging with the city of Newcastle upon Tyne. In 2001, it had a populati ...

Newcastle upon Tyne Newcastle upon Tyne ( RP: , ), or simply Newcastle, is a city and metropolitan borough in Tyne and Wear, England. The city is located on the River Tyne's northern bank and forms the largest part of the Tyneside built-up area. Newcastle is ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe ...

. The business park is home to a variety of companies, including banking group

Virgin Money Virgin Money is a financial services brand used by two independent brand-licensees worldwide from the Virgin Group. Virgin Money branded services are currently available in Australia and the United Kingdom. The brand formerly operated in South A ...

whose Head Office is located on the site. The centre has its own transport interchange with a station on the

Tyne & Wear Metro The Tyne and Wear Metro is an overground and underground light rail rapid transit system serving Newcastle upon Tyne, Gateshead, North Tyneside, South Tyneside, and the City of Sunderland (together forming Tyne and Wear). The network opened in ...

and integrated

bus station A bus station or a bus interchange is a structure where city or intercity buses stop to pick up and drop off passengers. While the term bus depot can also be used to refer to a bus station, it generally refers to a bus garage. A bus station is ...

History

North British Properties started to build Regent Centre in 1970 and finished in 1981; at completion it was the largest office complex in Europe, covering a total area of . The land is the former site of the Regent Pit of the Coxlodge

Colliery Coal mining is the process of extracting coal from the ground. Coal is valued for its energy content and since the 1880s has been widely used to generate electricity. Steel and cement industries use coal as a fuel for extraction of iron from ...

. The centre unveiled a new logo and identity in late 2008; the centre's slogan is "Better for Business". The current owner-developer is Omnia Offices who bought the complex in 2015 and are converting some of the office space into residential apartments. The previous owner was

Kennedy Wilson Europe Real Estate Kennedy Wilson is a global real estate investment company founded in 1977 and based in Beverly Hills, California, United States. In 1988, CEO and Chairman William J. McMorrow acquired the company. Kennedy Wilson focuses primarily on multifamily an ...

who purchased it along with the rest of the Fordgate Group's Jupiter Portfolio in June 2014.

Occupants

and LNER have offices in the Regent Centre. Former tenants of the Regent Centre are

HM Revenue & Customs , patch = , patchcaption = , logo = HM Revenue & Customs.svg , logocaption = , badge = , badgecaption = , flag = , flagcaption = , image_size = , co ...

as well as the

Driver & Vehicle Licensing Agency The Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA; cy, Asiantaeth Trwyddedu Gyrwyr a Cherbydau) is the organisation of the UK government responsible for maintaining a database of drivers in Great Britain and a database of vehicles for the entire ...

, Health & Safety Executive and the Labour Party,. In addition,

The Sage Group The Sage Group plc, commonly known as Sage, is a British multinational enterprise software company based in North Tyneside, England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its w ...

Northern Engineering Industries Northern Engineering Industries plc (NEI) was a British engineering firm, which for over 10 years was one of the largest employers on Tyneside. Its headquarters were based at the Regent Centre at Gosforth in Newcastle upon Tyne. History The com ...

, Cundall and

AMEC Amec Foster Wheeler plc was a British multinational consultancy, engineering and project management company headquartered in London, United Kingdom. In October 2017, it was acquired by Wood Group. It was focused on the Oil, Gas & Chemicals, M ...

all had offices at the Regent Centre. The Newcastle regional centre for the

Open University The Open University (OU) is a British Public university, public research university and the largest university in the United Kingdom by List of universities in the United Kingdom by enrolment, number of students. The majority of the OU's underg ...

was housed here, although it was relocated to

Gateshead Gateshead () is a large town in northern England. It is on the River Tyne's southern bank, opposite Newcastle to which it is joined by seven bridges. The town contains the Millennium Bridge, The Sage, and the Baltic Centre for Contemporary ...

in 2009. There is also a hair salon/coffee shop as well as a gym and physiotherapy specialist. Previously there had been a branch of

Barclays Barclays () is a British multinational universal bank, headquartered in London, England. Barclays operates as two divisions, Barclays UK and Barclays International, supported by a service company, Barclays Execution Services. Barclays traces ...

Bank located in the Regent Centre buildings.

Location

Within walking distance of Regent Centre, there is

Regent Centre Interchange Regent Centre is a Tyne and Wear Metro station in Zone B, serving the suburb of Gosforth, Newcastle upon Tyne. It joined the network on 10 May 1981, following the opening of the second phase of the network, between South Gosforth and Bank Foot ...

Gosforth Academy Gosforth Academy (formerly Gosforth High School) is an English secondary school in Gosforth, Newcastle upon Tyne. As well as having a sixth form department it is a specialist Language College. Many of its mainstream students come from three lar ...

, Gosforth Library and Customer Service Centre, and the Gosforth Leisure Centre which comprises several amenities including swimming pools and gym. There is also an

Asda Asda Stores Ltd. () (often styled as ASDA) is a British supermarket chain. It is headquartered in Leeds, England. The company was founded in 1949 when the Asquith family merged their retail business with the Associated Dairies company of Yorks ...

superstore close by, which in mid 2007 had an extension built which houses a restaurant. Across from Asda there is a

Marks & Spencer Marks and Spencer Group plc (commonly abbreviated to M&S and colloquially known as Marks's or Marks & Sparks) is a major British multinational retailer with headquarters in Paddington, London that specialises in selling clothing, beauty, home ...

food store; that site used to house a furniture store, and had previously been a

Jaguar Cars Jaguar (, ) is the luxury vehicle brand of Jaguar Land Rover, a British multinational car manufacturer with its headquarters in Whitley, Coventry, England. Jaguar Cars was the company that was responsible for the production of Jaguar car ...

showroom. Gosforth High Street is also within a few minutes' walk. St Charles' Primary school is located on Regent Farm Road, across from the Virgin Money buildings, between Regent Centre and a housing estate, Regent Farm Estate.

Regent Point

Planning applications were granted to expand and modernise a large section of the Regent Centre site, which is adjacent to the Metro line. In April 2007, work began on this area of land which is also called ''Regent Point''; building work began in early 2008 on the building. It is a four-storey office building with a glazed corner tower and modelled to be similar to the existing Regent Centre buildings. Clayton House, which occupied the Regent Point plot, was demolished in 1999 and so the plot was vacant for many years. There have been many different accepted plans for this site, including plans for a 5-storey building in 1998. In 2004 there were plans for a 7-storey building with retail space on the ground floor, however, these plans were withdrawn in July 2005. Developer Fordgate Group appointed Bowmer & Kirkland as the main contractor for Regent Point. The architects were Howarth Litchfield Partnership, the consulting engineers were Cundall, and Home Stretch Properties Ltd. were also involved in the project. Caunton Engineering Ltd supplied and erected over 600 tonnes of beam and column structural steelwork. The building has a BREEAM rating of "Excellent". In November 2013, Regent Point was purchased by the Newcastle upon Tyne Hospitals NHS Trust, represented by GVA, for an undisclosed sum.

Virgin Money

The

bank has its headquarters in Jubilee House which is adjacent to, although not part of, Regent Centre. The Red Box Design Group were involved with the development of all of the (currently standing) buildings for the bank. The focal point of Regent Centre since 1965 had been Northern Rock's old 7-storey building. In early 2006 this building was demolished and its replacement, known as Partnership House, which is 10 storeys high and cost £35 million, was completed in November 2008. Two of Northern Rock's other buildings on the site were completed in the 1990s; two further buildings were built in the early 2000s. The 1960s tower building also housed a branch of the Northern Rock bank. Northern Rock had financial difficulties in 2007 due to the

subprime mortgage crisis The United States subprime mortgage crisis was a multinational financial crisis that occurred between 2007 and 2010 that contributed to the 2007–2008 global financial crisis. It was triggered by a large decline in US home prices after the col ...

and was nationalised in 2008. This led to the company deciding to downsize, including job cuts and deciding to put this new tower building up for let or sale.

Newcastle City Council Newcastle City Council is the local government authority for the city and metropolitan borough of Newcastle upon Tyne. The council consists of 78 councillors, three for each of the 26 wards in the city. It is currently controlled by the Labou ...

spent £22 million purchasing the building, and let it out to another firm, a company set up by the council with support services firm

Carillion Carillion plc was a British multinational construction and facilities management services company headquartered in Wolverhampton in the United Kingdom, prior to its liquidation in January 2018. Carillion was created in July 1999, following ...

, on a 25-year lease. After Carillion's collapse in 2017, law firm

Clifford Chance Clifford Chance LLP is an international law firm headquartered in London, United Kingdom, and a member of the " Magic Circle", a group of London-based multinational law firms. It ranks as one of top ten largest law firms in the world measured ...

acquired the lease on Partnership House. In November 2011

agreed to purchase Northern Rock from the British Government. The deal was finalised on 1 January 2012. As of 12 October 2012 Northern Rock was rebranded to Virgin Money, and these buildings become Virgin Money's headquarters for their savings and mortgages business. Northern Rock House was renamed Jubilee House as part of the rebranding exercise.

Buildings

With the new developments, as of March 2009, there is empty office space to let. There is space available in Regent Point, Horsley House North, Dobson House and Eldon House West. The buildings are named after well known local industrialists and architects, such as John Dobson and Lord Eldon. ; Buildings * Arden House * Bulman House * Horsley House North * Horsley House * Eldon House West * Northumbria House * Dobson House * Eldon House East * Regent Point The Grainger Suite is located in Dobson House. North East accountancy firm MHA Tait Walker has offices in Bulman House. In 2015 the owners of the north side of Regent Centre were exploring possibilities for the business park's future, including potentially turning the buildings into 400 residential dwellings, work that was under way in 2018.

References

Newcastle University Newcastle University (legally the University of Newcastle upon Tyne) is a UK public research university based in Newcastle upon Tyne, North East England. It has overseas campuses in Singapore and Malaysia. The university is a red brick unive ...

's SINE project {{coord, 55.0117, -1.624, region:GB_type:landmark, display=title Buildings and structures completed in 1981 Buildings and structures in Newcastle upon Tyne Business parks of England