Toon landmark set for facelift

Nov 29 2009 Sunday Sun

THE former home of Scottish & Newcastle breweries is steadying itself for a multi-million pound makeover. Here, DAN WARBURTON catches up with the man behind the bid, Mitchell Gaglardi . . .

“It’s black and white and we have submitted applications with the council.

“We are a hotel group and we actively search for sites to build on. Newcastle has some great attributes and there are some really favourable market conditions. There is a major artery running nearby in the form of the A1.”

The Tyneside brewery beat competition from sites in major cities across the country for the development, designed by Fairhursts Design Group.

Manchester, Birmingham and London were all considered in a 10-month hunt but it was Newcastle that came out on top.

In 2007 the Gaglardi empire, along with partners from National Hockey League players Shane Doan, Jarome Iginla, Mark Recchi and Darryl Sydor, purchased the Kamloops Blazers, a Western Hockey League team.

And last night Mitch refused to rule out buying a slice of Mike Ashley’s beleaguered Newcastle United.

He said: “We’ve had the hockey team for three seasons and we’ve certainly beat out efforts every season to the one prior. We bought the hockey team with a few players who are actually still playing.

“We kind of have our ears to the street for other potential deals, but this was the first venture that we’ve taken on in that respect. But the hockey team is not the be all and end all.

“Football is something we would consider in this country if anything was to come our way.

“But Newcastle United would be much bigger than what we’ve done in Canada with the hockey team. The stadium there can hold around 5,000 so this would be a much bigger task.

“That’s not to say that if the opportunity came along we wouldn’t jump on it.”