Quorum Business Park

Quorum Park is a large speculative office development in North Tyneside, North East England, with almost 1 million square feet of office space built or under construction. Tenants include the head office of the Greggs bakery chain, Engie, Fabricom Offshore Services, Insurethebox, Swiftpage International, Ebiquity, Tesco Bank, Connect, Sitel, Balfour Beatty, Home Group, Convergys, Rosen, Bodycare Clinics, Squarehealth and Kids First Nursery.

Overview

Quorum was part of the North Tyneside Enterprise Zone that ran from 1996 to 2006. The site was originally occupied by the US Corporation Viasystems who had a major semiconductor manufacturing plant on the site. When that plant closed, the site was bought by the current owners who redeveloped the site into a major Business Park. Funding for the development was raised by Tritax with construction undertaken by Grantside, both joint venture partners in the development company.

Development Director Fergus Trim was recruited in 2008 to lead a major 450,000sqft phase of development and to head up the management and marketing of Quorum.

In 2009 and 2010 Quorum made the headlines with a series of lettings including some notable job creating inward investments. Almost 250,000sqft of office space was let to six new companies including major occupiers such as Tesco Bank, Balfour Beatty and Convergys.

British Engines relocated their central core services teams to the park in December 2013.[1] In August 2014 the building and energy services company Cofely moved into a 26,000sqft office building in the business park.[2]

In 2016, Greggs moved its head office from its previous Jesmond[3] location to Quorum Business Park.[4][5]

In November 2019 Shelborne Asset Management acquired a large proportion of the park for £32m. As part of the acquisition the park was re branded in 2020.

The re brand moved to associate the park with nature, growth and prosperity. Utilising the color green in the brand to represent positive aspects of health, freshness and calm.

As part of the re brand the became known simply as ‘Quorum Park’, dropping the word ‘business’ from the name.

Transport

Arriva North East runs several bus services towards the Business Park; some of these are branded as special Quorum lines, including line 555, the Quorum Shuttle Bus, which travels back and forth between Four Lane Ends - connecting to Tyne & Wear Metro there - and Quorum every 20 minutes on working days, and Max Bus X7/X8 from the park to Haymarket bus station in the city centre.

Discounted journey tickets are available for journeys between Four Lane Ends and Quorum for those holding a Q-card, Quorum's employee benefit card which employees of companies on Quorum can request online, upon which it is delivered to their employer.

The parks Commuter Centre Manager, Laura McVittie also actively promotes cycling to onsite staff with monthly Bike Hubs, free bike servicing and access to 10 free pool bikes, available for hire for up to 30 days at no cost.

Sports Club

The Quorum Sports Club is a unique facility that is free to use by anyone working at Quorum. This is the first time such a facility has been provided on a free to use basis on a UK business park.

Staff can choose from Football, Tennis or Netball. The facility is also available to hire out for staff team building exercises.

Sports clubs within the park include, The Quorum Kites Running Club and Quorum Triathlon Club.

Events

The Quorum Events calendar features over 300 events a year. Highlights include an annual sports tournament: the Quorum Games, The North East Food Fair and the Christmas Market. The Christmas Market sees approximately 1500 visitors enjoy over 60 local stalls including Fat Hippo, Tandoori Naan Hut and Northumberland Sausage Company.

Wildlife

Events Manager Laura McGrath heads up the onsite Wildlife Group, the group meets regularly to carry out activities to attract nurture wildlife across the park.

The Wildlife Group have been hard making bird boxes and bird feeders to site across the park as well as, clearing the stream and planting a nectar bed to feed the Quorum honey bees.

There are seven beehives located onsite, cared for by local bee keeper, Terry Hastings.

Other wildlife reported onsite includes water voles, bats, rabbits and foxes.

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References
  1. Journal, The (2014-06-18). "Quorum Business Park benefits from demand for out-of-town office space". The Journal. Retrieved 2017-07-08.
  2. Hugh Macknight (2014-08-28). "200 new energy jobs at North Newcastle's Quorum Business Park". Chronicle Live. Retrieved 2017-07-08.
  3. Ford, Coreena (20 August 2015). "Bakery giant Greggs plans cafe move in Newcastle city centre". ChronicleLive. Retrieved 23 August 2019.
  4. Ford, Coreena (29 September 2015). "Bakery giant Greggs set for Quorum Business Park move with Sanderson Weatherall help". ChronicleLive. Retrieved 23 August 2019.
  5. Ford, Coreena (7 September 2016). "Jobs on the way as US giant Sitel takes largest Newcastle office letting this year". ChronicleLive. Retrieved 23 August 2019.

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