Homes and hotel plan aims to boost Gateshead's Metrocentre
Plans to build almost 1,000 homes and a hotel on land around north-east England's biggest shopping complex could help secure its the future, a council says.
Gateshead Council wants to build 974 homes near the Metrocentre in Gateshead to help "boost business."
The authority said the Metrogreen plans would also regenerate brownfield land.
Metrocentre asset manager Ben Cox, said if the plan is approved the site could evolve into a "town centre."
Anneliese Hutchinson, the council's development director, said the shopping centre was important to the region's economy.
'Sustainable community'
"It's been a long-held ambition of the council to regenerate the area around the Metrocentre," Ms Hutchinson said.
"The centre is really important to our economy and we want to support that in the future by creating a sustainable community around it."
A public consultation has started on the Metrogreen project, which will go before a public inquiry later this year.
If it is given the go-ahead it is expected to take 20 years to complete.
Leisure attractions, including a fitness gym and mini-golf course, have recently been developed at the site, as well as a new NHS diagnostic centre which took over a vacant shop.
The shopping centre is owned by Sovreign Centros, which bought it 2020 when former owner Intu collapsed.
"We want a migration from just being a shopping centre to more of a town centre and people having different reasons to visit," Mr Cox added.
The centre opened in 1986 and, at the time, was Europe's biggest indoor shopping centre.
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