Planning consultancy DPP Planning has expanded into Newcastle city centre’s newest business hub.
The Newcastle team of the national firm is currently involved in some of the North East’s most high profile developments, and the coronavirus pandemic has triggered a need for a new Tyneside office.
Director Jo Robison wanted somewhere central, and settled on newly-opened Haylofts business centre in Newcastle’s Haymarket as a good fit for the firm’s young team.
She said: “The Covid pandemic made us think about our offices, and initially we thought we would need a smaller space as people were working from home effectively.
“However, we then came full circle and decided our young and talented team really needed new offices that were fresh, quirky, different and bespoke.
“Haylofts offers us some great break-out areas for team working and event spaces that our clients and contacts will enjoy. It has a warm, lively and refreshing feel to the place and our new offices will help us take our business forward in the way we want to.”
DPP has five offices across the 海角视频, providing planning services to clients across all sectors to assist in realising development potential and optimising the use of land, buildings and portfolios.
The Newcastle office has worked on several projects recently including Hadrian’s Tower and the former Brett Oils site in Gateshead, on behalf of The High Street Group; the £250m mixed use development of Quayside West; and two prime office buildings at Riverside Sunderland. DPP is also working with Sunderland City Council on the planning application for the new high-level pedestrian bridge over the River Wear.
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Ms Robison said: “We’ve been really busy recently and took on another two new graduates, taking our team up to eight, prior to our move to Haylofts.
“Our work is right across the spectrum, from major developments such as Hadrian’s Tower and the £400m Aykley Heads Business Park development in Durham, through to change of use applications and barn conversions.
“This range obviously helps our young team develop and grow their skills – they start on smaller projects and learn as they go along to be able to work on some of our much larger projects.”
She said the Covid pandemic has so far not affected DPP’s pipeline of work, adding: “We had to rethink some of our planning strategies to adapt to the situation quickly on behalf of our clients, but the ability to hold virtual meetings and councils moving relatively quickly to remote decision-making has meant the planning process has continued and we have secured planning permissions for some great schemes lately.
“Some of these will start on site in early 2021 and be significant for our region as we emerge from the pandemic.”