Buzzing with rapid pace of change
10:18am Tuesday 29th April 2008
THE pace of change in the Tees Valley is nothing short of incredible. Futuristic buildings are shooting up on Middlehaven and a real buzz is going round the business community.
The quantity and quality of contracts, deals and developments happening at this time give enormous cause for optimism.
I am proud that the North-East Chamber of Commerce (NECC) is playing its part in the regeneration of Middlesbrough.
The re-opening earlier this month of our Tees Valley headquarters at Commerce House, in Middlesbrough's Exchange Square, is the single largest investment project by NECC.
We were delighted to have the Princess Royal to open a building that now houses both space for NECC's 70 employees in the Tees Valley, as well as a range of meeting rooms and "hot desks" for our members to use.
Princess Anne was particularly taken by the sympathetic manner in which leading-edge facilities have been incorporated in such a fine, historic building.
The Princess went so far as to say that the regeneration should give a degree of confidence to others looking to invest.
NECC sees this £1.4m investment as an important piece in the wider jigsaw of the development of that area of Middlesbrough.
That area of the town is earmarked as a digital quarter - the Boho Zone - spearheaded by DigitalCity, a partnership between the University of Teesside and Middlesbrough Council.
The partnership is focused on establishing a cluster of creative businesses.
Commerce House is situated on the gateway to this project, in the town's Victorian heart, which links the centre of Middlesbrough to Middlehaven.
The baroque-style five-storey Commerce House, with its distinctive verdigris copper dome, was built for the York City and County Banking Company in 1873 and has a rich heritage in the financial sector.
Rather appropriately, it is watched over by the statue of Henry Bolckow, who was largely credited with establishing Middlesbrough as an economic powerhouse and was the first Teesside Chamber president.
This area of the town epitomises the wider fortunes of the Tees Valley.
There is so much positivity and energy emanating from the business community - a community that is buoyed because it is reaping the rewards of tremendously hard effort.
The Princess' wish for further regeneration is already happening, and Bolckow's legacy will live on, because Middlesbrough and the wider Tees Valley are flying high.
■ James Ramsbotham is chief executive of the North-East Chamber of Commerce