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8 October 2019

Spanish City wins RICS National award

Whitley Bay's Spanish City Dome bags 11th award for helping to rejuvenate coast. The coastal landmark has won yet another award after it was transformed from a decaying building into a leisure hub.

The Spanish City Dome, in Whitley Bay, had been empty for years before a multi-million pound restoration project was launched and work was

carried out to bring it back into use. The coastal landmark has won yet another award.



The building, which now has cafes, restaurants, a champagne bar and function space, opened to the public last year. More than 16,000 visitors queued for its opening in July 2018 and over 100,000 customers have visited the site since.



Over the past year, the Dome has won a string of accolades and also featured in The Telegraph's Best of British: 10 destinations you must discover in 2019. The venue has now bagged its 11th award and earned praise for helping to regenerate the coastline.



The latest win was in the tourism and leisure category of the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) awards held on Friday. RICS judges commended the "exemplary collaboration" of the team that helped to restore the building - ADP Architecture, North Tyneside Council and Robertson Construction.



They further highlighted the team's "outstanding success in bringing the former decaying building back into use, with unrivalled views of Whitley Bay's seafront and beach". The judges also said the venue had rejuvenated "not only the Spanish City site but potentially the entire section of its coastline to reinvent the visitor experience".



North Tyneside Mayor, Norma Redfearn, said: "The accolades for Spanish City just keep coming and it's wonderful to see.



"The job that's been done to bring such a fantastic building back to life, and the overwhelmingly positive reaction from the community, has been incredible and I'm just so proud of what's been achieved."



Some of the dome's previous awards were from the Royal Town Planning Institute, RIBA North East, Insider North East Property Awards and LABC (Local Authority Building Control) Northern Region Building Excellence Awards.

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