A £260m leisure complex at Gateshead Quayside is to be built adjacent to music venue the Sage. The development will include a 29,000m2, 12,500 capacity arena for entertainment, festivals, cultural events and sports.
In total the Quayside scheme will cover 54,500m2 and include a purpose-built conference and exhibition centre, restaurants, an outdoor performance space and a 13-storey hotel. Local residents had appealed unsuccessfully to the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government to block the hotel plans on the grounds that it will block light, overshadow the Millennium Bridge, the Baltic and the Sage, and will be a blight on the Quayside landscape.
The schedule start date for construction is March 2021, with the venue to open in late 2023.