Features

"We feel the town needs a kick start, and this could be the kick start Middlesbrough needs." says Joe Darragh, company secretary for the developers Mandale Commercial, of their latest propostition.

"The town needs fancy buildings... fancy office complexes. It's busting out for it."

An artist's impression of the proposed tower.

So what better to give Middlesbrough the breath of fresh air it so rightly deserves than a very tall, very bright, new building?

With plans to hold 600 student apartments, one floor of offices and four floors of luxury apartments, there's not much the plans haven't factored in, there's even parking to the rear of the building.

But apart from providing a lot of necessary accommodation, the new building will be the tallest in town - in fact, the tallest in the North East, and will "become the focal point of the town".

The contractors even having the backing of Mayor Ray Mallon, who says "This is a bold and exciting project which indicates the growing confidence in Middlesbrough as a whole."

The currently unnamed building will stand a staggering 375ft high, making it ten stories higher than Centre North East, and will cost £30m to build.

The designs and research are complete, and if all goes to plan, Mandale Commercial hope to have completed the tallest building in our region by September 2007.

Click the link at the top right of this page to listen to the BBC Radio Cleveland interview with Joe Darragh, by Katherine Hannah.