Bids expected to be submitted in February for housing on Sunderland Civic Centre site

Work is ongoing on the new multi-million pound City Hall at the former Vaux Brewery site as part of the Riverside Sunderland regeneration project.

The council’s new HQ is due to be completed in October this year and will house council staff and other organisations such as Gentoo and the Department for Work and Pensions.

The move to the former Vaux site was prompted by rising maintenance and running costs at the council’s current base, off Burdon Road, which was built in the 1970s.

At a recent meeting of the full council, council chiefs confirmed the site has already been marketed for housing with several developers showing interest.

“To support the [council’s] City Plan objective of providing more and better housing and increasing the city centre population to aid social and economic regeneration, the existing civic centre site was marketed to prospective residential developers in late July 2020,” said councillor Rebecca Atkinson, cabinet member for Dynamic City.

“Interested parties are currently preparing offers to acquire the site which are due to be submitted in early February 2021.

“Following which, a preferred developer will be identified and detailed negotiations will commence relating to the terms of the disposal.”

Cllr Atkinson was speaking at Wednesday’s (January 27) full council meeting.

The Labour councillor was responding to a question from Conservative opposition councillor Michael Dixon on the progress around any potential sale of the civic centre and timescales for negotiations being concluded.

Sunderland City Council previously applied for a Certificate of Immunity from Historic England for the civic centre buildings.

This will run up until May 7, 2022 and means the Secretary of State does not intend to list the buildings during this period.

The city council has confirmed the certificate will help pave the way for its move to the former Vaux Brewery plot due to rising maintenance costs and excess space, with the Burdon Road site to be sold for housing.

In the last full financial year 2019/20 the costs associated with running the civic centre totalled £2.18 million.

This included costs such as business rates, utility bills, cleaning and security, ongoing repairs and capital works.

At this week’s council meeting, Cllr Atkinson added a more detailed update on the future of the civic centre will be provided to cabinet “once the preferred developer has been identified.”

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