Partner Article

Hunt begins for ski slope developer

A lucrative contract to build the North East’s first indoor ski slope is now officially up for grabs for leisure developers from the region and beyond.

Regeneration firm Sunderland arc is on the hunt for expressions of interest from firms across Europe to help create what it hopes will be a thriving sports village on Wearside.

Stadium Village is already home to the Stadium of Light and the £20m Sunderland Aquatic Centre.

In the future, once a suitable developer is found, the site house a snow and ice centre and potentially an house an ice rink, other leisure facilities, sports shops, bars and restaurants.

Sunderland arc chairman John Anderson said the scheme would help to establish Sunderland as a regional hub for sports and leisure.

He said: “Stadium Village forms an important part of the city’s wider regeneration plan. It already boasts world-class sports and leisure facilities and further exciting developments such as the proposed indoor ski slope will cement Sunderland as a regional sporting destination.”

A notice asking for expressions of interest has this week been published in the Official Journal of the European Union.

The facility would be the only one of its kind between Leeds and Glasgow and is part of a comprehensive regeneration scheme for the area that includes other state-of-the-art sports, health and leisure uses, new offices, a hotel and housing.

These uses are set out in a Development Framework, prepared by Sunderland City Council and Sunderland arc, which has been out to public consultation.

More than 80% of the site needed for the snow and ice facility has already been acquired by the arc and its partners, One North East, the City Council and the Homes and Communities Agency.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Ruth Mitchell .