‘Landmark’ Newcastle city centre office development announces latest phase

Observers of the Newcastle skyline will have noticed the arrival of a second tower crane on the HMRC Pilgrim’s Quarter project, arguably one of the largest single occupancy projects in the city centre.

The regional centre will provide office accommodation for approximately 9,000 HMRC staff and will be the largest of HMRC’s 14 regional centres, at 463,000 square feet (43,000sq m). This second tower crane (TC2) will work alongside the existing tower crane (TC1) which has served the initial phases of the scheme around the first 2 cores.

TC2 comprises a 66m mast supporting a 60m jib, which will service cores 3 + 4 and share steelwork erection over the whole of the site, including the infill steelwork tying in the retained Carliol House façade on Market Street. Carliol House was the final building to be demolished.

The developers, their professional advisors and the city council were keen to retain its original features. At 130m long and 10 storeys high, this is one of the longest and highest retention schemes in the UK. To enable this project to go ahead, a car park, a cinema, office buildings and the interior of Carliol House were all demolished.

The historic façade of Carliol House has been retained and incorporated into the Pilgrim’s Quarter building. The office will stand at between six and nine storeys tall and wrap around Pilgrim Street, Market Street, New Bridge Street West and John Dobson Street.

Marc Gill, HMRC senior sponsor for the North East, commented: “We continue to be hugely impressed with progress on the Pilgrim’s Quarter development, and the arrival of TC2 on site moves us one step closer on our journey.

“Pilgrim’s Quarter will provide HMRC with some of the best facilities the department has to offer, co-locating thousands of high-quality government careers here in the heart of Newcastle, as well as boosting the local economy.”

Chris Turnbull, principal at Avison Young who are project managers on the scheme, added: “We are delighted to be on programme despite the significant challenges of demolition works, a major sewer diversion, extensive façade retention work and piling adjacent to the Metro line tunnels.”

Michael Johansen, construction director at the main contractor, Bowmer and Kirkland said: “The month of August saw the completion of the demolition to Carliol House and the erection of our second tower crane, these are 2 major landmarks in the projects build programme.

“I am very proud of the way our fantastic team managed their way through such challenges on such a logistically challenging scheme. We can’t wait to continue this journey to deliver what will be such an iconic building for our much-loved region. “

By Matthew Neville – Senior Correspondent, Bdaily

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