A LARGE new leisure development has been shortlisted for a prestigious design award.

Feethams Leisure Centre in Darlington, which incorporates the town’s new Vue Cinema, a hotel, and restaurants and cafes, will go head to head with developments across the region in the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors’ awards this week.

The development, designed by Darlington-based Niven Architects, dominates the skyline in the west of the town centre, and has been shortlisted in three award categories: commercial, regeneration and tourism and leisure.

Niven is also shortlisted in the community benefit category for an inpatient unit which is providing valuable care to hospice patients and their families.

The Palliative Care unit at St Teresa’s Hospice in Darlington, has been named as one of the most impressive buildings to benefit the community.

Both developments will be judged again in the North-East finals of the competition,on Friday, along with submissions from around the region.

St Teresa’s state of the art ten-room inpatient unit was built in the grounds of The Woodlands next to the existing Grade II listed hospice.

Niven Architects director Simon Crowe said: “The aim was to achieve a balance between a light and welcoming building which offered patients and their families the ability to relax and socialise in a home-from-home environment, without compromising on clinical standards.

“Our designers ensured the unit departed from the traditional clinical appearance offering, instead, bespoke design and finishes to the rooms, all of which look out onto stunning hospice gardens.”

The new unit enabled St Teresa’s to increase both occupancy levels and the range of treatments on offer.

The Feethams development, which is on the site of the former bus station, incorporates a nine screen cinema, seven restaurants and bars and an 80 bed hotel, providing new jobs for 330 people and attracting visitors from around the country.

Sitting in the key gateway for visitors coming from Darlington Railway Station, its railway arch design has helped Feethams become an integral part of the Darlington landscape.

Simon said: “Last year we achieved success at the RICS awards with the wonderful Daffodil House – providing independent living accommodation for people with learning disabilities – which was highly commended in the community benefit category.

“We’re hoping we can improve upon this further.”