I’ve been curious to see the progress being made in Newcastle for the past few months, constantly craning my neck as I drive past the site of the old York Place shopping centre and the adjacent Ryecroft brownfield site. So it’s with a sense of excitement that I pull on some work boots and don a hard hat to explore the sites with Capital & Centric’s development manager, Jonny Nolan. “Work started in December and we were drilling concrete in February – it’s amazing how quickly they’ve gone up,” he tells me as we begin at the Rye Park site, where 175 homes are being built, including 43 affordable homes with Aspire Housing. While the scaffolding is still up, windows are almost ready to go in, and some frontages have already been installed. It will be the first of Capital & Centric’s developments to be finished, with a launch party scheduled for January 2027.
The development will include a cinema, gym and flexible working spaces, with the various Newcastle developments interconnected so residents can move between them using a fob system. The Aspire units will be ready mid-May with planting planned for the site ahead of spring. “Rye Park will be heavy on the landscaping – people will walk out and it will be like a country park,” says Nolan.
Over the road at Astley Place, in addition to 42 apartments, a taproom, a pizza restaurant, a Greek eatery, a coffee shop, and a sushi place are all in the mix, along with a music venue and, potentially, a pickleball court and a library. “People want to live somewhere where they can grab a bite to eat,” states Nolan, who lives at Capital & Centric site Kampus, situated on a former Manchester Metropolitan University site. Asked if he could live here in Newcastle, his answer is emphatic: yes. “Our spaces in Newcastle are around 5-10 per cent larger than the ones in Manchester.”
Then there’s Karparc, the former Midway car park, which will be transformed into 111 one- and two-bedroom apartments. Meanwhile, Zanzibar will bring 62 affordable homes alongside enterprise units for local start-ups. Karparc is expected to be completed in May 2027, with Zanzibar following in autumn 2027.
Asked what kind of reception the projects have met with from locals, Nolan says there has been plenty of enthusiasm. “On a daily basis, the contractors are engaging with the public who are walking past, and I spend a lot of time down here, too. I’m walking around today in my Capital & Centric jumper and people will stop and say, “When’s it happening? This is great.” I think the public are really interested to know what they can they go and enjoy at the sites.”
He believes much of that interest comes from what the developments will offer to people who don’t live there. “We want to create an environment where members of the public and residents can mingle and enjoy nice public space. There’s going to be a central courtyard space which is really verdant, really green, and all the public can enjoy that as well.”
To bring everything together, Capital & Centric will also be undertaking some highway improvements, which will improve the look of the high street. “You’ll see a lot more greenery and landscaping in the coming months,” he says.
The work requires a Section 278 agreement with the highways authority. Once approved, it will be carried out alongside the various phases of the developments. By 2028, he says, the aim is for the improvements to knit the various developments together and create a greener, more attractive high street.
