Middlesbrough Mayor Dave Budd has welcomed Teesside University’s major £300m proposals as central to the town’s wider investment and regeneration plans.

Earlier this year Mayor Budd unveiled Middlesbrough Council’s Investment Prospectus which outlined plans to attract more than £700m of private investment into Middlesbrough.

The Council itself is investing £72m to kick start the ambitions for Middlesbrough to cement its place as the city centre of the Tees Valley region in order to compete with other northern city regions.

Mr Budd said: “The first thing I want to say is that you don’t need to be a student to see and feel the benefit of what Teesside University is doing for Middlesbrough.

“Investments on this scale help everyone. They bring with them more interest in Middlesbrough, more people to Middlesbrough, more jobs for Middlesbrough and more opportunities to Middlesbrough.

“In our Investment Prospectus the University Quarter was highlighted as one of seven areas we wanted to focus on. Since those plans were announced just six months ago we have seen exciting progress and news in each of those seven categories.

“There is a real sense of optimism at the moment, both in Middlesbrough and about Middlesbrough – barely a day goes by without news of new investments in our city centre, such as bars, restaurants or retail.

“It is wonderful that our partners at Teesside University share our ambitions, to quote Vice Chancellor Paul Croney ‘to make Middlesbrough an exciting and appealing destination’ for them to ‘students from across the world’ and to us for everyone from across the world. Middlesbrough’s ambitions should be as high as this.”

In the other areas of Middlesbrough Council’s Invesment Prospectus…

Middlehaven

Work has started on the dock road bridge which will unlock land for further developments, the snow centre has been given planning permission, Sainsbury’s have announced potential tenants for the completed superstore and Teesside institution The Gazette has moved to Hudson Quay.

Centre Square

 Planning permission has been given to the first two of five Grade A office blocks to the east of Centre Square which are expected to bring 1,500 new jobs to Middlesbrough, with outline planning permission approved for the remaining three. Plans are also being drawn up to allow Centre Square to host more major events.

Business and Enterprise

 Middlesbrough’s City Centre is seeing new businesses, including popular new bars, restaurants and retail, open all the time. Among them are Bistrot Pierre due to open in the coming weeks, Flannels, due to open before the end of the year, Swarovski have announced they are coming to Middlesbrough. The area surrounding Baker and Bedford Street is getting more and more quirky eateries and Centre North East is to be renamed The Pinnacle with a sky bar, Turtle Bay, micropub, boutique bowling alley and other attractions.

Railway Station and Historic Quarter

 Work is now well underway on a £2.7m Network Rail project to renovate and restore the Railway Station, including its car park and the units beneath it, while new trains will be put on the lines and direct services to London will arrive by 2020. For the wider area including the Historic Quarter, a masterplan was unveiled earlier this year by Middlesbrough Council and Middlesbrough MP Andy McDonald to create a destination with a wide offer of facilities and amenities.

Housing

 Middlesbrough is currently embarked on the most ambitious house-building programme in its history, with more than 1,500 new homes completed over the last two years and 7,000 due by 2029.

Most recently, proposals for 299 houses, with everything from two and three bed terraced and detached homes to four and five bed detached properties, have been given the green light to be built on the land off Low Lane at Stainsby Hall Farm.

Teesside Media and Innovation Village

 The longest term project in the Investment Project, TMIV would be based on the west of the city centre and would be an iconic regional destination for media, digital, creativity, learning and leisure. Although no physical proposals are yet on the table, Middlesbrough Mayor Dave Budd has confirmed there will remain a bus station in the heart of Middlesbrough to allay resident fears.