Three Teesside professional firms are to advise on extending Middlesbrough’s digital and creative hub.
Middlesbrough Council has appointed architects Logic Architecture, commercial property consultancy Dodds Brown and quantity surveyors Steel River Cost & Project Management (SRCPM) to undertake a feasibility study on the Boho Next Generation initiative.
Made possible with £100K development funding from the Tees Valley Combined Authority, the project, in consultation with Middlesbrough’s existing digital business base, will include feasibility work and development concept drawings to build a clear picture of short- and long-term commercial space requirements.
With little remaining office space available in the Boho cluster, and digital and creative firms wanting to remain together in close proximity, Dodds Brown will prepare forecasts for demand, potential take-up and rental levels for new space, Logic Architecture will draw up design proposals which will seek to complement the existing Boho buildings, while SRCPM will provide full cost advice and estimates for the proposed new buildings.
Architect Mark Barlow of Logic Architecture’s Middlesbrough office said: “We are delighted to have secured this exciting commission in our home town and look forward to meeting with all existing and prospective tenants to understand what they need to help their businesses continue to evolve.
“We will then use this intelligence to inform our design proposals which will seek to complement the existing Boho buildings by creating a different style of workspaces to appeal to even more creative and digital companies and strengthen the growing national significance of Tees Valley as a tech hub.”
Stephen Brown, senior partner at Middlesbrough-based Dodds Brown said: “Boho is an extremely successful concept, but with office space there, and indeed elsewhere in Middlesbrough, presently in very short supply, we will be providing the market analysis of demand for a new generation of office buildings.
Gary Marshall of Stockton-based SRCPM said: “We will be working with our colleagues to provide a robust estimate of the development proposals to help secure funding for the scheme, enabling the long term future of Boho as one of the UK’s most successful digital clusters.”
With Middlesbrough highlighted as one of 16 booming ‘digital suburbs and tech towns’, adding £304 million to the local economy in the recent 2018 Tech Nation report into the UK’s digital economy, Middlesbrough Council is keen to ensure the town and the wider Tees Valley are in pole position for the next phase of growth in this sector.
Councillor Lewis Young, Middlesbrough Council’s Executive Member for Economic Development and Infrastructure, said: “The digital sector is a key to Middlesbrough’s economic growth. There is a need to identify suitable space for businesses to grow in the short term as well as explore the opportunity for long-term ownership of new premises.
“We really want to encourage that scale of ambition and ensure they get the right support to establish themselves firmly in the heart of Middlesbrough’s historic quarter.”
Picture caption: (l-r) Gary Marshall, Stephen Brown and Mark Barlow in Middlesbrough’s Boho cluster of office buildings.