The North East We’re Transforming Tees Valley
Tees Valley is home to some of the biggest investments and projects in the country – from the Darlington Economic Campus in the west, to the new Hartlepool Development Corporation’s ambitions to create a thriving digital centre – and the transformational work to bring tens of thousands of jobs to the for- mer Redcar steelworks at Teesworks.
Tees Valley Combined Authority has invested in Six Centre Square with Middlesbrough Council – a Grade A office space in the heart of the town. Insurance giant AXA UK takes up more than half the space in the four-storey 40,000 sq ft building to host more than 450 Teesside staff, and they will soon be joined by teams from the TUI Group.
A new hotel and a vision to rejuvenate Gresham in the centre of Middlesbrough is also taking strides forward in the west of the town centre, alongside Teesside University, led by the Middlesbrough Development Corporation.
Neighbouring Stockton has huge ambitions to see the creation of a Health and Social Care hub at Thornaby. Working between Stockton Borough Council and the Combined Authority,
it aims to create a Care and Innovation Zone in Teesdale Business Park and the Tees Marshalling Yards to bring a once in a gener- ation opportunity to deliver a nationally signif- icant and recognised cluster on 110 hectares on brownfield land.
Teesworks is arguably the biggest regenera- tion taking place in Western Europe. Spanning a site the size of Gibraltar – there are huge projects here now, and to come soon. SeAH Wind’s vast 800 metre long monopile manu- facturing facility will be completed this year at South Bank – supporting 750 full time jobs and 1,500 jobs in the supply chain.
The new Steel River heavy lift quay nearby on the River Tees provides new shipping access on a cutting-edge quay facility – and the huge bp-led Net Zero Teesside will see spades in the ground to bring thousands of jobs to the Redcar end of the Teesworks site just a stone’s throw from where the former steelworks blast furnace once sat.
The newly created Hartlepool Development Corporation is looking to breathe life into the burgeoning arts, filming and culture scene in the town.
Efforts are underway to create hundreds of new properties on the Hartlepool Waterfront
– and work is ongoing to expand the fantastic Northern Film Studios, and take forward the Middleton Grange Shopping Centre.
Meanwhile, Middlesbrough’s leading posi- tion in the digital and gaming industries is being bolstered by building on the success of the existing Boho Zone at Middlehaven – with 60,000 square foot office space BOHO X, backed by the Council and Combined Authority, brimming with firms at the van- guard of new technology.
Finally, Darlington has become a growing centre for government departments and sig- nificant site for the Civil Service.
Home to 30,000 sq ft Feethams House which hosts the Darlington Economic Campus, a new home just a few hundred yards away at the Brunswick Campus has planning permis- sion secured with the aim of hosting 1,450 civil servants and bringing a £118million investment into the town in 2027.
No matter where in Tees Valley businesses settle, things are flourishing for the future.
We asked Jonathan Simpson at CPNE for his views on the year ahead for the North East Industrial Market.
Moving into 2025, there are a number of sig- nificant challenges posed to businesses by the recent Budget that are starting to effect occupier decisions. Unfortunately, we antici- pate some business failures this year and with that we expect more stock will come back to the market, of varying sizes, however there still remains a lack of good quality modern buildings of 20,000 – 30,000 sq ft across the whole region.
Jonathan Simpson
As the dust settles on a challenging year for the market in 2024, I believe there is a mixed year ahead for the North East Industrial Property market.
Having closed off 2024, some of our main highlights were as follows:
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Sale of 107,000 sq ft at Preston Farm, Stockton on Tees to DLS
Signing of the Agreement for Lease with DPD for a brand new facility at Forrest Park, Newton Aycliffe
Letting of 80,000 sq ft in Stockton on Tees to LV Shipping
Sale of a 5 acre industrial complex to ECFS in Middlesbrough
COMMERCIAL PROPERTY MONTHLY 2025
Furthermore, we expect it to be challenging, with some businesses pausing on whether they move and re-ajust their forecasts given the recent budget and the effects that may have had, particularly with regard to National Insurance payments.
There still remains a significant shortage of freehold property, characterised by strong demand and furthermore highlighted with the creation on new landlords holding onto build- ings for investments purposes who otherwise once upon a time would have just sold them.
In terms of new developments, the financial viability and duration of the development process remain a key barrier in the devel- opment pipeline. Funding initiatives such as those managed by the North East LEP have successfully enabled development which otherwise would not have happened. These
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interventions continue to play an impor- tant role in increasing potential stock lev- els. Further announcements are expected in Newton Aycliffe at Forrest Park, and at Merchant Park Aycliffe a brand new 52,000 sq ft building is on site now and due for com- pletion in September this year. A number of other larger schemes across the region are reaching completion including Greenbox in Darlington where there will 84,000 sq ft, 105,000 sq ft and 213,000 sq ft buildings avail- able, seeing how demand for these go will be a strong litmus test for the viability of next phase of development in the region.
At the smaller end of the market take up of small units since Covid has excelled, but as rents have peaked demand has slightly slowed down but, we have just been through a general election and Christmas shut down and various budget revelations, but with the general lack of voids on mulit-let small schemes, we anticipate landlords continuing to refurbish buildings, and push rents.
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