Cobalt Park
IndustryBusiness park
Founded1996 (1996)
Headquarters
Wallsend, North Tyneside
,
United Kingdom
Websitecobaltpark.co.uk

Cobalt Park is a business park located in North Tyneside, England. It is one of the largest business parks in the United Kingdom.[1][2]

History

Initially known as Hadrian Business Park[lower-alpha 1] plans for the area were devised the early 1990s[3] by the Tyne and Wear Economic Development Company.[4] Work began on building Cobalt Park in 1996 when the site was purchased and it was initially to house businesses employing 5,000 people[5] on a site of 140 acres (57 ha).[6] Part of the development was made a designated Enterprise Zone in 1995.[7] The region had previously been noted for its large mining industry and because of this the development had to secure 5 disused mine shafts that ran through the site.[4] In 1997 Highbridge Business Park Limited (a joint venture between Highbridge Properties and Ashall Group) became developers of the park and the development took on its Cobalt name.[4]

In 1998 construction of the first building, Cobalt 3, commenced and was completed in 1999.[4] Over the following years more buildings were added.[4] Additional expansion land was acquired in 2002 and 2007.[6] The development consists of more than 29 buildings.[5] As of 2016 more than 14,000 people are employed on the business park.[5]

The CBX building was formerly part of a £1.1 billion Siemens Semiconductors factory that had been built in 1995/6[8] and opened by Queen Elizabeth II in May 1997.[9] Siemens closed the plant in 1998, and spun off their Semiconductor business to Infineon Technologies in 1999.[lower-alpha 2][10] The fabrication facility was transferred to Atmel in 2000 who restarted production at the site.[11] After Atmel decided to reorganise their global factories, their 8-inch wafer fabrication equipment was sold to TSMC and the North Tyneside site itself was sold to the owners of Cobalt in 2007.[12] A number of the buildings attached to the original semiconductors factory have since been demolished and replaced with office and data centre buildings, thus expanding the Cobalt Park site.[13]

As part of the development a country park of 44 acres (18 ha), Silverlink Biodiversity Park, was created on site and declared a nature reserve in 2005.[14] It had been built on the site of a former rubbish tip.[14]

Businesses

Newcastle Building Society,[15] North Tyneside Council[16] and the Sage Group[17] have their headquarters on the site. Newcastle Building Society had used office space at Cobalt since 2008[18] before moving out of their previous headquarters in Portland House in Newcastle City Centre in 2021.[15] North Tyneside Council moved their headquarters to Cobalt from Wallsend Town Hall in 2008.[19] Sage Group moved their headquarters from Newcastle Great Park in 2021.[20]

Other businesses located on the park include Accenture, DNV, DXC Technology, EE, IBM, NHS, Leeds Building Society, Procter & Gamble, Santander and Siemens Gamesa.[21] Previous tenants have also included Balfour Beatty, Barnardo's, Formica, G4S and Utilitywise.[22] Retail tenants also include Aston Martin, Busy Bees Nurseries, Greggs, Jaguar Land Rover and Tesco.[23] The site also has its own data centres,[24] gyms,[25] hotels[26] (Travelodge and Village Hotel Club) and hospital.[27]

Transport

The business park is located adjacent to the North Tyneside Steam Railway and Silverlink Retail Park. The business park is served by numerous bus routes and the nearby Northumberland Park Metro station.[28] It is located near to the A19 and A1058 roads and is bordered on one side by a former 19th-century waggonway that is now used as a cycle path.

Footnotes

  1. ↑ Named after the nearby Hadrian's Wall to the south
  2. ↑ However, the North Tyneside site was not transferred to Infineon

References

  1. ↑ Ford, Coreena (19 February 2016). "Rapid expansion at Accenture triggers fourth acquisition of space at Cobalt Park". ChronicleLive. Retrieved 20 June 2021.
  2. ↑ "Cobalt Park". Cundall Johnston and Partners. Retrieved 19 June 2021.
  3. ↑ "Newcastle Journal". 4 March 1992. p. 2. the still undeveloped Hadrian Business Park
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 "Cobalt The First 10 Years" (PDF). Ryder Architecture. Retrieved 21 June 2021.
  5. 1 2 3 Ford, Coreena (12 April 2016). "How Cobalt in North Tyneside became the biggest business park on the block". The Evening Chronicle. Retrieved 19 June 2021.
  6. 1 2 "Cobalt Park, North Tyneside". Ashall Property. Retrieved 19 June 2021.
  7. ↑ "Boost for job seekers". Newcastle Journal. 7 October 1995.
  8. ↑ "Siemens to pour pounds 1.1bn into 2,000 new UK jobs". The Independent. 4 August 1995. Retrieved 20 June 2021.
  9. ↑ "Shock at Siemens jobs loss". BBC News. Retrieved 20 June 2021.
  10. ↑ "IPO Prospectus" (PDF). Infineon Technologies AG. Retrieved 31 October 2021.
  11. ↑ "Atmel buys Siemens' Tyneside fab bringing 1,500 jobs to the region". Electronics Weekly. 20 September 2000. Retrieved 20 June 2021.
  12. ↑ "Atmel sells U.K. fab to TSMC, Highbridge Business Park". EET Asia. Retrieved 20 June 2021.
  13. ↑ Walko, John (22 January 2009). "Bulldozers finally demolish Siemens' Tyneside fab". EDN.
  14. 1 2 "Local nature reserves". North Tyneside Council. Retrieved 19 June 2021.
  15. 1 2 Whitfield, Graeme (14 December 2020). "Newcastle Building Society to leave city centre HQ as more staff work from home". Business Live. Retrieved 20 June 2021.
  16. ↑ "Contact the council". North Tyneside Council. Retrieved 20 June 2021.
  17. ↑ Ford, Coreena (9 July 2020). "Overseas investors seal £45m deal to become owners of Sage Plc's new HQ". Business Live. Retrieved 20 June 2021.
  18. ↑ Deighan, Gareth (26 February 2008). "Newcastle Buiding [sic] Society grows despite crisis". The Evening Chronicle. Retrieved 20 June 2021.
  19. ↑ "Quadrant, North Tyneside Council". Art UK. Retrieved 20 June 2021.
  20. ↑ Ford, Coreena (29 March 2021). "Sage head office in Newcastle put up for sale". ChronicleLive. Retrieved 20 June 2021.
  21. ↑ "Map". Cobalt Park. Retrieved 19 June 2021.
  22. ↑ "21st century new town". BQ Live.
  23. ↑ Gibson, Robert (24 March 2016). "£150,000 Aston Martin model unveiled at opening of North East dealership". ChronicleLive. Retrieved 20 June 2021.
  24. ↑ Manning, Jonathon (15 December 2016). "What are the Cobalt data centres: All you need to know the site". ChronicleLive. Retrieved 20 June 2021.
  25. ↑ Ford, Coreena (4 August 2017). "Former PE teacher opens second Cobalt gym in two years as health and fitness venture takes off". ChronicleLive. Retrieved 20 June 2021.
  26. ↑ Sharma, Sonia (12 April 2021). "Work starts on new £3.6m Travelodge hotel at business park". ChronicleLive. Retrieved 20 June 2021.
  27. ↑ "Cobalt Hospital". NHS. 28 September 2009. Retrieved 20 June 2021.
  28. ↑ "Northumberland Park Metro Station | Co-Curate". Newcastle University. Retrieved 19 June 2021.
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