NORTH EAST DEALS OF THE WEEK: KEY CONTRACTS, ACQUISITIONS AND INVESTMENTS

Receivers heralded “a new chapter” for the failed Britishvolt site in Northumberland, after it was sold to an investment company to spearhead a series of data centres.

US firm Blackstone Group and its data centre subsidiary QTS has entered into a contract for the sale of the site at Cambois, Blyth, with the joint LPA receivers of the property assets of Britishvolt Properties Ltd at Begbies Traynor Group. The receivers – Bob Maxwell and Julian Pitts – said the negotiation for the sale of the site marked the end of a complex 15-month process, representing a new chapter for the 235-acre site, which will now be transformed by Blackstone into one of the largest data centre facilities in Western Europe, creating hundreds of jobs.

If successful, the scheme could trigger a £10bn investment into the North East – while also concluding a number of false dawns for a site deemed one a key UK development site. The land, site of the former coal yards of the old Blyth Power Station, was originally earmarked by Britishvolt for a gigafactory to manufacture batteries for electric vehicles, which the firm said could create 3,000 jobs and many more through the supply chain.

The plans collapsed when Britishvolt called in administrators last year – and a bid to revive the plans with Australian company Recharge Industries has also failed to materialise. The site is owned by former Britishvolt lender Katch Fund Solutions, which appointed Begbies Traynor as receiver in November 2022, but Northumberland County Council has an option to buy back the site, to make sure it is used to bring good quality jobs to the area. The council has agreed to amend the option in exchange for a £110m payment which will be earmarked for job creation schemes in the county.

A housing scheme worth a reported £100m will finally be built on the banks of the River Tyne after US investment giant Hines stepped in to fund the project – more than three years after plans were approved.

Developers were granted permission to build hundreds of new flats on the plot of land between the Redheugh and King Edward VII bridges in Newcastle in September 2020, after the land had been left unattended and inaccessible for many years. The Pottery Lane scheme, brought forward by developer Olympian Homes, will now see the creation of two U-shaped buildings with 519 homes after global real estate investor, developer and manager Hines agreed to forward fund the development.

The Houston, Texas, based firm is funding the project on behalf of its Hines European Property Partners (HEPP) fund in partnership with Olympian Homes, saying that once complete, Pottery Lane will form the city’s largest multifamily development. They say the property will be an all-electric scheme powered by geothermal heat pumps and on-site solar PV, making it net-zero enabled from day one.

The scheme, understood to represent a £100m investment, marks Hines’ first move into Newcastle as well as one of the first to take shape on the city’s Forth Yards Regeneration Area, a priority zone for new investment at the core of its strategy to become a regional hub for tech, life science and innovation industries.

North Tyneside renewable energy installer Geowarmth was been acquired by a growing London business. Hometree, the challenger residential energy services company, has snapped up the North East company to support the home decarbonisation revolution. With targets to have 600,000 heat pumps installed by 2028, Hometree is capitalising on the switch to renewables with the acquisition of Geowarmth, which has pioneered renewable energy solutions across the North East and North West of England since 2004.

Geowarmth will in turn get access to Hometree’s customer base and its suite of financing products and insurance services to deliver more value to its customers. Meanwhile, the acquisition will enable Hometree to bolster its engineering force and re-train more of its 5,000 engineers to be able to install, repair and maintain renewables.

John Withers, CEO of Geowarmth said: “I’m immensely proud of the progress we have made in the past 20 years to become a recognised installer of low-carbon energy solutions. I am delighted we are now part of Hometree, which will allow us to reach more people and help more homes transition to renewable energy.”

Newcastle technology company Grid Smarter Cities secured a £2m investment to deliver a project in London which aims to cut congestion. The Newcastle Helix based business has built a platform called Kerb, which allows drivers to book time slots to park on kerb space in towns and cities. The firm, which has received three lots of funding from Innovate UK since 2018, has now secured a £2m investment from TIG Corporate Finance, helping it to carry forward a trial with Westminster Council.

Grid Smarter Cities will provide its parking bay management system, Kerb, to manage parking for fully electric vehicles at two sites in the City of Westminster. The 18-month trial was launched by Coun Paul Dimoldenberg, Westminster Council’s cabinet member for city management and air quality in a bid to find an innovative solution for managing loading bays.

The scheme allows electric van drivers to reserve a parking spot for up to 90 minutes, 24 hours a day, reducing ‘idling’ and space searching time for delivery companies, helping them to plan greener modes of transportation for onward deliveries, like cargo bikes or on foot. The Kerb software includes an app, an online interface, and an on-street e-sign, meaning distribution companies can pre-plan their schedules with defined delivery times.

Neil Herron, chief executive of Grid Smarter Cities, said: “It’s an exciting time for Grid Smarter Cities as we enter into this trial with Westminster Council on the back off the back of fresh investment into our software.”

South Tyneside metal fabrication firm AAP was snapped by a Sussex business in a £1.8m deal. The Jarrow-based business has been acquired by Eastbourne company DINH Ltd in a move which will see its directors retire with immediate effect. AAP, which is based on the Bede Industrial Estate, was established in 2009 and provides metal fabrication services for the subsea, offshore and renewables sectors.

New owners, Gordon Watt and Jeremy McLeod-MacKenzie at DINH, say the acquisition will provide a strong fit with another of their businesses, Washington Waterjet Ltd (WWJ). Terry Hall, who is MD of WWJ, will also become the managing director of AAP, with the company’s current general manager taking charge of day-to-day operations.

Mr McLeod-MacKenzie said: “AAP has developed a strong reputation for supporting local clients with innovative solutions in a timely manner. This has resulted in the development of a loyal customer base that considers AAP a critical supplier. There is still huge potential to extend AAP’s geographical reach and continue its development and growth, with focus to date having been on their local marketplace.”

Games developer Red Rover Interactive secured a $15m (£12.05m) investment led by South Korean gaming publisher Krafton. The Newcastle headquartered specialist in multiplayer survival genre games, which also has Norwegian studios in Oslo, announced the Series A round which features the backing of Tirta Ventures and Overwolf, alongside existing investors GEM Capital, Acequia Capital, Likelike Capital, The Games Fund and Behold Ventures. The city centre firm will use the funds to boost development of its debut title, so far codenamed Project Coltrane, including an intention to create 25 jobs.

It comes less than a year since Red Rover was created by a team with experience across the industry including at studios Ubisoft Reflections and Funcom. Last June the business raised $5m (£4.01m) in seed funding.

It hopes Project Coltrane will usher in a new era of survival gameplay by delivering what it says is a fast-paced and replayable player-vs-player experience set in a post-apocalyptic world featuring a train. Red Rover says the game is intended to "challenge the conventions of the survival genre".

Virtual reality simulation specialist Vrai secured a Ministry of Defence contract to provide a training system to a North East-based artillery regiment. The Newcastle Helix-based firm, which also has a Dublin base, has been chosen for a pathfinder contract that will see it develop a tactical simulator for the Multi Launch Rocket System (MLRS), which is based in the 101 Royal Artillery Regiment in the North East of England.

The £288,000 pathfinder project is funded by the Defence and Security Accelerator (DASA) 1st Customer Fund and will result in an initial MRLS Tactical Capability Trainer that simulates an MLRS cab so that training costs and carbon footprint are reduced.

It will be used by The Geordie and West Riding Gunners - the Royal Artillery's Army Reserve unit in the North East, which is the only unit to hold, maintain and train on the armoured tracked M270 MLRS. The system is the British Army's main precision fire weapon and can reach targets at long range with great accuracy.

2024-04-22T16:01:30Z dg43tfdfdgfd