Member Article

RICS National Awards Commendation for Toffee Factory Regeneration

Toffee Factory received a Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) judges’ commendation in the regeneration category at their prestigious national awards ceremony held at the Savoy Hotel in London (Friday 19 October).

The RICS National Regeneration award celebrates projects that have made an exceptional improvement to the built or natural environment, making a long-term contribution to the vitality and prosperity of an area. The Toffee Factory received the Commendation from the judges in the national final.

The Toffee Factory had received the Regeneration award for the North East region in April this year and went forward to the national award competing against other leading projects from across the UK in both the regeneration and project of the year categories.

RICS Judge said:

“Standing at the mouth of the Ouseburn, the transformation of the former Maynards Toffee Factory is lively, colourful and exciting. The detailing is clever and creates a fantastic work environment with a community feel for small businesses. The project raises the profile of the Ouseburn and the bar for other developments in the valley. The quality of the refurbishment gives confidence that the building, which was originally built in the 1860s but was on the point of collapse, now has a lifespan of at least another 150 years.“

The awards ceremony was attended by Toby Hyam and Paul Fallon of Creative Space Management, operators of the Toffee Factory, and Mark Lloyd, Head of Strategic Property and Asset Management, Newcastle City Council.

Toby Hyam, Managing Director of Creative Space Management who operate Toffee Factory said:

“On behalf of the whole team connected to the development and delivery of Toffee Factory this is a tremendous result. It just goes to show that Newcastle and other northern cities have world class facilities for stimulating the entrepreneurial talent and growing businesses that are on equal footing with any other city in the world.“

Mark Lloyd, Head of Strategic Property and Asset Management at Newcastle City Council, said:

“It is fantastic, with over 500 entries from around the world this is a real testament to the building, the potential of the Ouseburn area and the people who live and work there.“

Tim Bailey, xsite Architecture, architects of Toffee Factory added:

“This Commendation is a tremendous acknowledgement for the delivery team behind the Toffee Factory, a building we have grown to understand is well liked in the area as it is successful in housing some of the best creative talent in the North east. I hope this recognition encourages others to aim high with the quality of future regeneration projects around the North East.“

Toffee Factory has won a series of awards in its first year of being open. It scooped a series of awards at the North East region RICS Renaissance Awards in April 2012 including the highly acclaimed Project of the Year, the Regeneration award as well as being Highly Commended by judges in both the Design & Innovation and Commercial Property categories. It went on to compete in the RICS national awards in both the Regeneration and Project of the Year categories.

Toffee Factory was awarded the Royal Town Planning Institute’s (RTPI) North East Main Award earlier this month. And in June 2012 The Toffee Factory won three Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) awards; RIBA North East Sustainable Building of the Year and RIBA North East Building of the Year, and building architects xsite Architecture received one of 58 National RIBA Awards for their redevelopment of the Toffee Factory.

Toffee Factory provides creative and digital studio space for growing businesses. Its contemporary office spaces opened in December 2011 in the refurbished Maynards Toffee Factory located at the mouth of the Ouseburn Valley. The development cost £6m financed by the European Union’s ERDF Competitiveness Programme 2007-13, regional development agency One North East through Single Programme and Newcastle City Council.

The refurbishment of the old Victorian factory was led by xsite architecture, an Ouseburn-based practice. Toffee Factory is owned by Newcastle City Council and operated by multi-award winning company Creative Space Management.

For more information see www.toffeefactory.co.uk.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Cait Read .