One Strawberry Lane, Newcastle

Home Group’s new city centre HQ


BAM is constructing a new head office building for Home Group in Newcastle City Centre.

Home Group is one of the UK’s largest providers of social housing and their purpose-built HQ is being delivered by Ask Real Estate.


Project details

  • Customer: The Home Group 
  • Developer: Ask Real Estate
  • Contractor: BAM Construction
  • Architect: Ryder
  • Quantity Surveyor: Faithful + Gould
  • Project Management: Faithful + Gould
  • Civil and Structural Engineers: BGP Consulting Engineers
  • M&E Consultants: CAD21
  • M&E Designers: SES

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Support hub for the city’s voluntary sector

Newcastle City Council has approved plans for the six storey office building which is designed by Ryder Architecture. Close to 700 of Home Group’s 2,600 strong workforce will move into the building when it opens next year.

The new head office will also act as a support hub for the city’s voluntary sector. Home Group is working with Newcastle Council for Voluntary Service to provide space and expertise, which will allow for enablement, collaboration and innovation in the voluntary sector. The build programme is expected to support an estimated 400 construction and supply chain jobs during the project, bringing around £24m per year to the region.



Building programme

Commenting on the commencement of the building programme Joe Cook, executive director of development at Home Group, said: “It has been a long-held aspiration of ours to create a superb new head office, something that will not only benefit our customers and the community but which will leave a lasting legacy for the city. 

“The sustainability of the building in particular is extremely important and it will be one of the first new build commercial buildings in the area which is being designed with the ‘new normal’ return to work in mind. We want to reduce our carbon footprint as an organisation and our new head office, with its A grade Energy Performance Rating – the highest rating a building can achieve - will help us to do that. A range of energy saving and sustainable technology and materials are included in the design.”  

 

“Building One Strawberry Lane for Home Group is the latest chapter in our long history of delivering some of the region’s finest buildings. It is great to have started on site especially under the challenging conditions we are all experiencing. We have created industry-leading safety standards for our construction teams and with the tight city centre site footprint and adjacent Nexus Metro Tunnel, we have used our digital experience and tools to safely design and plan the works.”

Tony Fitzgerald

Construction Director, BAM in the North East

The building is also expected to bring significant economic value to the city. Conservative analysis suggests that an additional 700 employees will boost Newcastle’s daytime and evening economies by close to £2m per year. 

As well as delivering One Strawberry Lane Ask Real Estate is also behind the £260m arena-led Gateshead Quays re-development and a 245 unit residential scheme at Tower Works in Leeds city centre. 

“Breaking ground on a new site is always a landmark moment and we’re especially pleased to be underway at One Strawberry Lane which will deliver something truly special for the city of Newcastle. This building is designed with sustainability at its core and will not only provide superb office facilities for the Home Group team but will also include a wide range of community and commercial facilities for the local residents.” 

John Hughes

Ask Real Estate Managing Director