Plans for riverside apartments

Newcastle-based Closegate Hotel Developments is building a 209-bedroom Radisson SAS Hotel, including health club, conference and banqueting facilities, on the site of former British Gas and Northern Electric works at Framwelgate Waterside, which overlooks the River Wear.

The project has been in gestation since about 1997 and the site has recently been decontaminated and undergone groundworks. The actual construction of the four-star hotel is due to start next month.

Closegate, which also built the Copthorne Hotel on Newcastle's Quayside, is seeking Durham City Council's consent to build the apartments and car parking on derelict land alongside the hotel and move an electricity sub-station.

Closegate managing director Ken Hunt said the funding package for the hotel - which won planning permission in 2000 - had had to be re-worked because of a downturn in the market following September 11.

"There is a cross-funding requirement from the housing to the hotel," he said.

"This will be one of the best hotels in the area and certainly the best in Durham. There is nothing like it in the area."

The company has spent £5m on the project so far - on design, groundworks and drainage - and envisages that the apartment development, which will include moving the electricity sub-station, will cost about £20m.

Construction of the hotel will take about two years and when it is completed the development of the apartments will start after the hotel is completed.

Durham City Council is keen to see new facilities for tourists and business visitors that will complement projects such as the nearby Millennium Square and the Walkergate redevelopment.

Mr Hunt said: "The site is quite an eyesore now and this development will improve it.

"Durham is a very attractive city and it has a lot of visitors and a lot of visitor potential. The more hotel stock it has, the better."

He added that 'it would make it very difficult for us' if the apartments did not receive permission