The Spirit of Sunderland was a skyscraper proposed for Sunderland, North East England, by the designs of Sunderland Arc and Thornfield Properties Ltd. The tower was part of the Holmeside Triangle regeneration plan, a project to establish the area as a thriving, attractive modern area of retail. [1]
North East England is one of nine official regions of England at the first level of NUTS for statistical purposes. It covers Northumberland, County Durham, Tyne and Wear, and the area of the former county of Cleveland in North Yorkshire. The region is home to three large conurbations: Teesside, Wearside, and Tyneside, the last of which is the largest of the three and the eighth most populous conurbation in the United Kingdom. There are three cities in the region: Newcastle upon Tyne, the largest, with a population of just under 280,000; Sunderland, also in the metropolitan county of Tyne and Wear; and Durham. Other large towns include Darlington, Gateshead, Hartlepool, Middlesbrough, South Shields, Stockton-on-Tees and Washington.
Sunderland Arc was a privately owned, non-profit, urban regeneration company based in Sunderland, North East England. It ceased operations in 2011.
The proposed tower had 33 storeys, and at 100 m (328 ft), it would have been the tallest building in the United Kingdom north of Bridgewater Place, Leeds, West Yorkshire. [2] It would have stood on the current site of the 'Independent', a nightclub and live music venue, enjoying excellent access to Tyne and Wear Metro services at Sunderland Central and Park Lane, as well as regional and London-bound Grand Central train services at Sunderland Central.
The United Kingdom, officially the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland but more commonly known as the UK or Britain, is a sovereign country lying off the north-western coast of the European mainland. The United Kingdom includes the island of Great Britain, the north-eastern part of the island of Ireland and many smaller islands. Northern Ireland is the only part of the United Kingdom that shares a land border with another sovereign state—the Republic of Ireland. Apart from this land border, the United Kingdom is surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean, with the North Sea to the east, the English Channel to the south and the Celtic Sea to the south-west, giving it the 12th-longest coastline in the world. The Irish Sea lies between Great Britain and Ireland. With an area of 242,500 square kilometres (93,600 sq mi), the United Kingdom is the 78th-largest sovereign state in the world. It is also the 22nd-most populous country, with an estimated 66.0 million inhabitants in 2017.
Bridgewater Place, nicknamed The Dalek, is an office and residential skyscraper in Leeds, West Yorkshire, England. It is the tallest building in Yorkshire, and has held this record since being topped out in September 2005. It is visible at up to 25 miles from most areas. Although the tallest building in Yorkshire, it is not the tallest structure. Emley Moor transmission tower, 13 miles south of Bridgewater Place, is taller and is the tallest structure in the United Kingdom.
Leeds is a city in West Yorkshire, England.
On 26 June 2009 Thornfield Properties signed a £180 million agreement to build the Holmeside development along with Sunderland Arc. [3] However, the project was axed in late 2010 after Thornfield Ventures – one of the companies behind the Holmeside Triangle – collapsed into administration. [4]
As a legal concept, administration is a procedure under the insolvency laws of a number of common law jurisdictions, similar to bankruptcy in the United States. It functions as a rescue mechanism for insolvent entities and allows them to carry on running their business. The process – in the United Kingdom colloquially called "under administration" – is an alternative to liquidation, or may be a precursor to it. Administration is commenced by an administration order. A company in administrative receivership is operated by an administrator on behalf of its creditors. The administrator may recapitalize the business, sell the business to new owners, or demerge it into elements that can be sold and close the remainder. Most countries distinguish between voluntary (board-decided) and involuntary (court-decided) receivership. In voluntary administrative receivership, the administrator is appointed by the company directors. In involuntary administrative receivership, the administrator is appointed by a judicial court. The legal terms for these processes vary from country to country, and the processes may overlap.
