Member Article

Making Newcastle a city of the future

Antony Michaelides, owner and managing director of The Assembly Rooms

Like many businesses, the 2008 slump was a major milestone for The Assembly Rooms –

I’m not sure I know a single person who wasn’t affected by it in some way. However, we took the decision at the time to invest in our business when everyone else was battening down the hatches. This meant that when things started to improve we were ahead of the game with a new business model, geared towards post-recession and ready for what is essentially a completely different local economy today.

Newcastle City Centre has seen an incredible amount of change over the last few decades, so much so it’s almost unrecognisable. The transformation of the Stephenson Quarter is a prime example of the level of regeneration taking place and The Assembly Rooms is lucky enough to be reaping the benefits that this investment is bringing into the city – not least the refurbishment of Newcastle Central Station, which is now a ‘gateway’ truly fit for purpose.

It is only recently that so much acreage became available for development and not many cities have such volumes of area suitable for regeneration. To see this taking shape after years of very little activity is exciting.

The mood amongst my peers and clients is certainly more buoyant than that of pre-2008 and not a day goes by without another shop, bar or restaurant opening announcement in the local media, which is all great for generating healthy competition within our industry.

The city pretty much has it all – from our galleries, museums and retail offering to our excellent social scene and stunning countryside and beaches. Indeed, given all of our different offerings it’s a miracle we are still considered by visitors to be a hidden gem!

But we are nowhere near finished; I think we are still in our infancy in comparison to other Northern cities such as Manchester and Leeds, which invested more heavily and speedily than we did in their offering and general infrastructure. There is still lots to be done.

We need more quality hotels, such as the Crowne Plaza which has set a precedent in the city and provides a great blueprint. If we can marry up great operators with suitable locations we’ll be on the way to achieving an even greater name for Newcastle, but this will require local people putting their money where their mouth is and backing the city.

We have a strong identity and shouldn’t underestimate how lucky we are that people from outside the region understand the North East – it stands out for the right reasons. But we still need to right a number of misconceptions. We lack the strong leadership needed to create and invest in a compelling marketing and PR campaign to sell the city and wider region – and I know many people agree with me on this.

That said, the mood for us as a standalone business is a really positive one at present. We are receiving a lot of enquiries, people are more confident committing to bookings and we are reaping the benefits of that. If we are even a small reflection of other city centre businesses then the region’s future looks bright and other likeminded businesses can look forward to a city that really is one of the future.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by The Assembly Rooms .