Developing NewcastleGateshead

MIPIM Day Six: so, tired, hot, and waiting for my connecting flight late on a Friday evening, I ask was it worth taxpayers’ money being spent for two of us to go to MIPIM?

There is at least one deal worth $10 million to the city which I feel much more confident will go ahead as a direct result of conversations I have had. Nearly $500m of investment also looks a little nearer because relationships have clarified and strengthened with potential partners. We have met at least 20 experts and investors over three days, who would have been most unlikely visitors to Newcastle. We have picked up some really exciting ideas and seen how other places succeed. We have made some good informal links with some competitors. And the day job still gets done – even without clocking in, my flexitime is over 20 hours up, and the emails and calls got answered.

So, yes, it was worth it. And perhaps one day before long we will have a NewcastleGateshead Convention centre that can steal the show and save the journey!

Some real positives from yesterday: the offer of some free advice on a couple of heritage buildings we are determined to look after but cant find a use for in any, let alone this, climate; a team who have enthusiasm, a track record, and access to their own internal finance to take on refurbishing and improving district shopping centres; a new way of dealing with waste recycling on large multi-story estates; another link into the global climate change work of the C40 group of leading cities; also some great feedback about design work done by our technical services design team.

So some great leads for advice and investment, and a great warm feeling that isn’t just coming from being in the sunshine!

A meeting at MIPIM with a private investment broker who invests in property for very wealthy individuals. He says they visit and know London, and that is what they are comfortable with. In other words, Newcastle and Gateshead are off the map.

After 20 minutes, I have a contact to pass on to perhaps unlock one of our stalled student housing schemes, and I am asking him for ideas for the next stage of our Riverside Dene project: five tower blocks, currently poor quality council housing (but with five other blocks being fabulously transformed). I am trying the high risk strategy: to make a pitch memorable, make it difficult.

I suppose it begins with an anxious wait for a taxi at 4.30 am, but really it begins four hours later on a packed flight from Brussels, where I speak half French, half English to my neighbour, who has just taken on a role as urban designer for the Brussels region: 1.1 million people, same size as Tyne and Wear, but divided into 19 municipalities, of which Brussels itself is the largest, and the same size as Newcastle.

My new acquaintance tells me he thinks the crisis between Flemish and Walloon regions is not as intense as it was, but relations with neighbouring regions, different in politics, nationalisms, and language, remain difficult.

It is easy to take partnership for granted in Tyne and Wear. A reminder, then, that we shouldn’t and it is one of the strngest selling points when I speak to developers.

David