Plans for a new luxury hotel on Newcastle’s Quayside have been approved.
The Dakota Hotel is set to take over the disused St Ann’s Wharf building, a prominent site on the riverside which has been empty since last year.
Newcastle City Council’s planning committee signed off on the regeneration proposals on Friday morning.
The authority’s cabinet member responsible for planning, Cllr Irim Ali, said: “It is great news that this hotel has been given the go-ahead by planning committee. It will only add to the popular appeal of the Quayside as a centre for culture and tourism.
“It will also help create 150 new jobs in the local community offering apprenticeships, internships and graduate training programmes, also giving 65,000 visitor nights per year which will be great for generating new business for local bars and restaurants.”
The new hotel will have up to 118 rooms, plus a bar and restaurant on the ground floor.
An extension would also be built on the ground floor to create a new entrance and lobby area for the hotel.
However, councillors were told on Friday morning that the extension had triggered opposition from the 20th Century Society – which objected against the plans because of the loss of two arched windows at the front of the building, which was previously home to law firm Womble Bond Dickinson.
The preservation campaigners said that the building was of “national significance” and should be designated as a heritage asset, but council officers argued that the benefits of bringing it back into use outweighed any “unfortunate” consequences from the extension being built.
Concerns were also raised by the committee about a lack of secure cycle storage or disabled parking spaces at the hotel.
Lib Dem councillor Doreen Huddart claimed that the development was “discriminatory” towards people with mobility problems who might want to apply for a job at the hotel – as they would need to be dropped off and picked up outside the main entrance rather than drive themselves.
Nevertheless, the plans were approved unanimously. The new hotel will add to the Dakota brand’s presence in Edinburgh, Glasgow, Motherwell, Leeds and Manchester.
