Activity due to recommence at Sky Building site
After a five-year delay, work on the abandoned Sky Building in Newcastle’s town centre is due to recommence.
Contractors have today started a clean-up operation to get the site ready for main construction works, now set to commence in earnest in September with a completion date for summer 2023.
Simon Tagg, the Leader of Newcastle-under-Lyme Borough Council, who this morning met with the new owners and contractors on site, said: “It is good to finally see some action taking place. A clean-up of the Sky Building site is long overdue and we have been calling for urgent action from the new owners for some time.
“The Council isn’t involved in the current development on the site, which has had a series of private-sector owners since 2016, and we have been very concerned about site safety and security.
“It is early days, but I hope that we can take this activity as the start of a new phase. The unfinished building is a blight on our town centre and we want to see the construction work beginning again as soon as possible and to get to the point when the building is finished.”
“The Sky Building is in a key town centre site and when finally completed will make its own contribution to the huge shift-change in Newcastle’s multi-million pound redevelopment and modernisation, taking place thanks to the Government’s Town Deals and Future High Street funding.”
More than £7m of Town Deal and Future High Street funding was allocated to the redevelopment of the town centre Ryecroft area. The blueprint plans include a net-zero carbon Collaboration Hub, a new car park, modern residential space for ‘downsizers’, new public realm and, potentially, a town-centre hotel.
Pictured above, from left to right, are Justin Hipkiss, Councillor Stephen Sweeney, the Leader of the Council Simon Tagg and Christian Hipkiss, Director of Built4learning Limited, the new owners of the Sky Building.