A Scottish construction consultancy has chosen Sunderland for its first regional base. Business Editor Mike Parker investigates why changes on Wearside are proving such a draw.

DAVID DENT'S childhood memories of Newcastle Quayside are vivid. He recalls the drab, underdeveloped and uninspiring tract of land that constituted the working riverside.

He said: "When I was a kid, my dad used to take us to the match in his painter's van. He parked at his offices in a warehouse on the Quayside. It is no longer there and that area of Newcastle has changed dramatically."

Both sides of the River Tyne are now unrecognisable, particularly the Gateshead side of the river.

The renovation of the Baltic flour mill, the creation of the Sage Music Centre and the unifying presence of the Millennium Bridge have complemented earlier efforts to regenerate the banks of the River Tyne.

It is that transformation which Mr Dent focuses on when he considers the potential for change in Sunderland.

The urban regeneration company (URC) Sunderland Arc plans to attract £1bn investment and 10,000 jobs to the city and his new bosses are keen to be a part of that economic boom.

Mr Dent has been appointed director of construction consultancy Neilson Binnie McKenzie's (NBM) Sunderland office.

The 37-year-old lives in Great Broughton, North Yorkshire, but was born in County Durham.

NBM's first district office is based in Sunniside, in the heart of one of the arc's key redevelopment sites. It is a rundown area desperately in need of investment.

It is the presence of the arc's chief executive, Tom Macartney, his overall vision for Sunderland and his previous successes in Glasgow that attracted NBM co-owner Stuart McKenzie.

The effervescent Scotsman worked with Mr Macartney when he transformed a drug-riddled, estate in Glasgow's Gorbals area into the Crown Street Project, an architecturally and aesthetically successful blend of private and social housing.

Mr McKenzie said people were more willing to accept schemes on the scale that Mr Macartney has planned for Wearside. He said: "The visionary today was considered a madman ten years ago."

NBM had a turnover of £2.2m last year and is involved in a number of projects in the region, including working with Vimac Leisure on Boldon Business Park and Railtrack in Newcastle, but the base in Sunderland will give it greater scope to attract more work in the region.

NBM is already involved in cost consultancy in Sunderland on the Vaux and Farringdon Row sites, as well as providing overall project assistance, and Mr McKenzie believes there is plenty of work coming up. He said: "Sunderland is embryonic. What we are talking about here is changing and reorganising a city.

"We as a practice from Glasgow have really put our money where our mouth is. We want to help put pride in Sunderland like in Glasgow."

For Mr Dent, it is part of further enhancing the region as a whole. He said: "The North-East has a lot of problems. It has its fair share of deprived wards, it has got housing market collapse, it has got problems in terms of unemployment in terms of levels of productivity in relation to the country as a whole.

"But it has also got a lot going for it. We have national parks on our doorstep, we have got tremendous coastline and great cities and we have already seen examples of the North-East being regenerated in Newcastle and Gateshead.

"There are tremendous opportunities for the North-East."