New plans to build a new hotel on Newcastle city centre’s Helix site could be approved this week.
City councillors will be asked to sign off on redrawn proposals for a 198-bedroom Tribute hotel on the development site, formerly home to the old Scottish and Newcastle brewery.
An £18 million vision for a Moxy hotel, also part of the Marriott chain, was previously approved by Newcastle City Council in 2021.
But those proposals never came to fruition and a revised, slightly larger version of the St James’ Boulevard scheme has now come forward.
The hotel, which would stand at between six and eight storeys tall, would boast three more bedrooms than the original design and a new function suite in its basement.
Dutch firm Vastint Hospitality’s first set of plans had sparked concerns that the hotel would “overpower” listed buildings on neighbouring Westgate Road and have a “major impact on the privacy of residents”.
One resident of the nearby Summerhill even brought a Lego model of the development to a meeting of the council’s planning committee to demonstrate how it was almost twice the height of what was proposed in the original masterplan for the area, previously known as Science Central.
Ahead of this Friday’s meeting, council planners say that the latest designs for the hotel would “bring an element of less than substantial harm to the setting of the heritage assets on Westgate Road”, but that the negatives would be outweighed by the benefits of a new hotel.
A report to planning committee members, recommending that the scheme is approved, states: “Whilst it is clear that there would remain a strong contrast between the ‘old’ and ‘new’ in this location, the proposed development would add another layer to the existing development on Helix, whilst not affecting the ability to appreciate the significance of the designated heritage assets and their important linear nature on the historic route into Newcastle.
“Given the above, it is considered that the development would result in less than substantial harm (lower end) to the significance and setting of these heritage assets on Westgate Road from views from the south, west and east and from the nearby edge of the Central Conservation Area and Summerhill Conservation Area.”
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