Work will start soon to build a long-awaited conference centre on the Gateshead quayside. But has the project been realised at exactly the wrong time, asks business and agenda editor Graeme Whitfield?
Just over 40 years ago, two men met in the Rose and Crown pub on Newcastle’s City Road and formed the company that would go on to become world-leading technology business Sage.
The company’s name came from a poster on the wall of the pub showing a number of herbs. So it is only by chance that the new arena and conference centre about to take shape just across the Tyne from that now-demolished pub is not called The Parsley, or perhaps even more unlikely, The Basil.
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Thankfully it will be called The Sage after the tech firm, which recently moved to a new headquarters just outside Newcastle, re-affirmed its commitment to the region by securing the 10-year naming rights to the conference centre in a £10m deal.
Sage has, of course, sponsored the music centre that overlooks the conference centre site since it opened in 2004. When the conference centre and associated hotels, bars and restaurants open in two years time, the entire development will be known as The Sage, with the firm aiming to use its sponsorship to ensure that the small businesses it champions as its main customers are involved both in the construction process and in the life of the conference centre once operational.
Creating a conference centre has long been an aspiration for civic leaders in Gateshead, with the development having been identified as the last piece in the jigsaw that has seen the Millennium Bridge opening, the transformation of the former Baltic flour mill into a contemporary arts centre and the Sage Gateshead being built.
Though some conferences have been held at the current Sage Gateshead - including party politcal gatherings and global medical conferences - the venue is not large enough to host bigger events which bring thousands of visitors who tend to spend significantly in local businesses (as well as potentially benefitting the local economy in other ways once introduced to an area).
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Preparatory work on the conference centre has already begun, and though there have been some grumbles about the design of the project, the main construction project will begin in the next few weeks (just as work on another long-awaited project on Gateshead quays, the redevelopment of the former Brett Oils site into luxury flats, has also kicked off). The centre’s opening date has been pushed back slightly to early 2024, but it is hoped the development will create around 2,000 new jobs, add £70m to the local economy and attract hundreds of thousands of visitors to the area.
The project will be bolstered by the fact that it will effectively take over from the current Utilita Arena across the river in Newcastle, with its operators ASM Global signed up to run the new centre.
But the last two years have seen few big concert tours and even fewer in-person business conferences as the pandemic put pay to social gatherings and showed businesses that they could bring people together without the expense, effort and associated climate harms of flying people around the world.
So has Gateshead’s dream of having a major arena been realised at exactly the wrong time?
Gateshead Council leader Martin Gannon believes not, and says The Sage “will attract millions more visitors to the North East” and “showcase regional strengths to a global audience and maximise opportunities for inward investment and repeat tourism”.
He added: “There’s a huge range of professional and medical conference organisations and the people that run them are planning now for events in 2027 and 2028.
“The whole business model for our centre was based on attracting a number of international events each year and there’s a target set down for that. The aim was to get three or four of those major events but now it’s looking like we’ll be able to double that. There is the demand out there.
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“The challenge for us now is to put together an organisation that can provide five-star hospitality and the best services possible so that the reputation spreads. The evidence we have is that the demand is there and this will be a fabulous addition to the region.”
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Coun Gannon’s optimism is shared by Sarah Green, chief executive of the NewcastleGateshead Initiative.
She said: “This world class venue will be transformational - driving our visitor economy with a million visitors annually, creating 2,000 jobs and positioning our region as a destination for international events and conferences.
“The Sage, which will be the size of 10 football pitches, is yet another significant milestone in our quayside’s regeneration story, with £750m worth of investment planned on the north and south banks of the Tyne.”
Now only time will tell whether that optimism proves well placed.
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