£1.5 million Haylofts project nears completion

A £1.5 million project to create 20 studio offices and a meeting suite beside Newcastle Haymarket is nearing completion.

Silverstone Building Consultancy has project managed the development for Hyhubs, the roll-out brand for the team at Hoults Yard, who are looking to create a network of business centres across the region.

The Haylofts project beside Haymarket is the conversion of St Thomas Business Centre – originally the stables for Newcastle Breweries.

The 19th century property, which lies in a heritage area between residential homes and the main campus of Newcastle University, was first opened as a commercial centre in 1986, and will reopen this year after six months of construction work.

Silverstone has worked alongside Xsite Architecture, Raskl and STP on the design, build and construction at the site.

This latest project comes after Silverstone converted a disused warehouse at Hoults Yard into an office and studio space for consultancy firm Red Engineering Design.

Mark Coulter, associate director at Silverstone, said: “The Haylofts project has presented a number of challenges with inserting a high spec meeting and auditorium ‘pod’ in the glass-covered courtyard.

“Plus, as with other heritage buildings, we hit interesting issues in regenerating them to modern standards.

“Despite these challenges it’s been a pleasure to be involved in bringing projects with such vibrant personality to life. We worked with the client to understand their vision and took a lead in ensuring the design and construction of the spaces captured this completely.”

“We have a great team on this job,” added Charlie Hoult, Hyhubs managing director. “We’ve had great value-add from Mark Coulter at Silverstone, plus STP and his team of partners like Geoffrey Robinson, Critall and Lloyd Worrall.

“The city is showing a rise in demand for ‘flex space’ and Haylofts will be the first co-working centre offered by Hyhubs in the city centre.

“We are avid watchers of national trends and feel we are the best local operator to introduce the offer to match WeWork, TOG or Fora – because we have the network and connections on the ground.

“Hyhubs team has years of experience at hitting the right balance of style and function.”