Contract awarded for new Sunderland City Hall development

One of the UK’s largest construction companies has been awarded the contract to build Sunderland’s new £42 million City Hall after a bidding contest.

Bowmer + Kirkland, whose North East regional office is located at the city’s Rainton Bridge Business Park, won the contract after seeing off competition from a number of other bidders.

The City Hall development was designed by award-winning architect Faulkner Brown and will be situated on the former Vaux Brewery site on banks of the River Wear.

It will be 190,000 square feet when completed in 2021, which will make it the largest building on the site and more than twice the size of THE BEAM.

The project is a key element in Sunderland council’s £500 million plans to transform the city centre, which they hope will contribute to its regeneration, as well as attracting outside investment.

The council also intends the project to deliver a range of benefits to local residents and businesses in line with its community wealth building programme.

These benefits include the creation of full-time jobs and apprentice positions, £29 million invested in local supply chains, and £9 million for SMEs in the area.

Councillor Graeme Miller said: “We’re delighted that the contract to build City Hall has been awarded to a Sunderland based company, with all the benefits that brings with it in terms of local jobs created and money spent with local companies and in the local economy.

“City Hall is an essential element of our £500m transformation plans to create a dynamic, healthy and vibrant city centre that our residents will be proud of and will want to live, work and spend time in.

“It will help us deliver the step-change we know residents want to see in the heart of the city by spearheading change that will deliver more and better homes and jobs in the city centre, new leisure developments, a new railway station and better connectivity in the form of improved road links and a footbridge across the river connecting the stadium with the city centre plus a stronger daytime and night economy.”

Paul Anderson, project manager at Bowmer + Kirkland, said: “We are delighted to be the main contractor on this important building for the city of Sunderland.

“This development will herald the regeneration of the city centre and will also encourage further development and investment, boosting the local economy.”