Plans for a new £18m hotel in Newcastle city centre could be approved next week, with future guests promised ‘hyper-fast’ Wi-Fi and big-screen TVs in every room.
A 195-bedroom Moxy Hotel, which is part of the Marriott brand, is earmarked for the Newcastle Helix science and business park on the former Scottish and Newcastle brewery site near St James’ Park.
Dutch firm Vastint Hospitality’s proposals for the eight-storey building are now set to come before city councillors next week, with Newcastle City Council’s planning committee expected to give them a seal of approval.
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The designs for the boutique hotel include a 42-inch television with Chromecast in every hotel room and hyper-fast Wi-Fi for both hotel guests and people visiting a bar and restaurant on the ground floor.
In a nod to the Helix site’s brewing heritage, the bricks used to build the base of the hotel will feature a star pattern in tribute to the famous Newcastle Brown Ale star logo and there will also be a piece of metal artwork incorporated into the north west corner of the building to “further reinforce the story of the former Tyne Brewery”.
Six objections have been lodged against the development ahead of the committee hearing next Tuesday, July 6, with some complaining that the hotel is too big.
One objector warned the council that the Moxy Hotel will “overpower” listed buildings on neighbouring Westgate Road, as well as having a “major impact on the privacy of residents”.
They also claimed that it would “seem unwise” to allow another hotel to open at that end of the city centre, given the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic and because “the council is already investing in a failing hotel in the city” – seemingly a reference to the troubled Crowne Plaza, which has been loaned more than £30m over recent years.
Another opponent of the plans said: “This would be directly behind my home. I think it would look ugly, block the sunlight, and I would have people basically looking into my house from their hotel rooms. We have also been subjected to the endless building on this site for the last 5 years.
“We were promised it was going to be full of green areas and environmentally innovative.
“The reality is that it is an expanse of concrete with virtually no green areas, literally the bare minimum they could get away with to tick the boxes on the application.”
The hotel, which it is said would create 30 jobs, is split into two parts – with the front section facing St James’ Boulevard being two-storeys shorter and featuring a large glass lobby area
Council planners have admitted that the proposals would cause a loss in daylight to a “small number of properties in Westgate Road”, but say that the benefits of the investment outweigh the harm caused.
In a report to councillors ahead of next week’s meeting, planning officers said it was important to have a “statement scheme” on the Helix and that the hotel is “a key element of the regeneration of this former industrial site”.
Recommending the plans for approval, they concluded: “Whilst the increase in the height of the proposed building would bring an element of less than substantial harm to the setting of the heritage assets on Westgate Road, it is considered that when judged against the existing and proposed context of development on the Newcastle Helix site and the public benefits of securing a new hotel development for the city with high quality public realm on this key regeneration site, these benefits would again outweigh this harm.”
