EFFORTS are continuing to entice businesses into a flagship Darlington office building after the occupancy of a major tenant was thrown into doubt.

It was announced last week that global seabed engineering firm DeepOcean had started a process to wind down three divisions of its cable laying and trenching business.

The group includes Enshore Subsea Limited, DeepOcean 1 UK Limited and DeepOcean Subsea Cables, which until recently had offices in Darlington’s Coniscliffe Road.

In February, it was announced that DeepOcean was moving into the newly-opened £8.5million Feethams House development, taking up an entire floor of the town centre building which was completed in May.

However, the company's future in Darlington is now uncertain and leaves the flagship, Grade-A office building looking decidedly empty.

Cllr Alan Marshall, Darlington Borough Council’s cabinet member for economy, said he understood concerns expressed by some residents that such a large and expensive town centre building could be left unoccupied and said work has been ongoing to attract businesses into Feethams House.

He said he could not comment further on the DeepOcean tenancy without knowing the 'exact machinations' of the company's restructure.

Cllr Marshall said: "It is one floor (they were taking up) and it is significant, in a building that size.

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Building work continued on Feethams House earlier this year with Covid safe measures in place Picture: SARAH CALDECOTT

"We are actively marketing the availability of this Grade-A office accommodation and that marketing has been ongoing all the time."

He added: "We went ahead and developed that building on the basis of sound market research that there was a real need for that sort of office accommodation."

Cyndi Hughes, councillor for Park East ward which includes the Feethams House development, said: "Probably at the time that the investment was made, it was a really wise decision because it aligned with all the regeneration going on in the town centre - and who could've possibly predicted what would happen now?"

Cllr Hughes added that she was 'hopeful' businesses would move into the office space to take advantage of its 'prime location and incredible transport links'.

She added: "Obviously I can't really influence that, but the cabinet will have to do what they can."

Feethams House was funded by Darlington Borough Council, the Tees Valley Mayor and Combined Authority and the European Regional Development Fund.

Construction work was completed in May this year and DeepOcean were the first tenants unveiled for the new building.

The five-storey, 30,000sq ft building is in the proximity of multi-million pound regeneration area in Darlington which in recent years has seen the addition of a multi-storey car park, Vue cinema and an assortment of bars and restaurants in the DL1 leisure zone.