How A Charity Transformed Its Fortunes Through A Bold Move Into Property

If I asked you what you know about Newcastle's Live Theatre, what would you say?

A hidden gem? A great place to see upcoming playwrights? A good night out? Perhaps. The Guardian recently described it as, ‘one of the most fertile hubs of new writing’. All true.

But did you know that the Live Theatre is also a property developer with 54,000 square feet of commercial space, worth £14m, tucked-away in its portfolio? They currently have office space from 400 to 5,000 square feet available to let and 12 current tenants whose rent is helping fund their arts programme.

The Live Theatre is a charity. An arts organisation. And, yes, you heard right – an astute landlord of offices, bars and restaurants. How incongruous does that sound? Incongruous maybe. But smart? As it turns out – definitely.

“I don’t know what position we’d be in if we hadn’t dared to dip our toes in different waters.”

This is the unusual tale of how a forward-thinking arts charity put its faith in property to sustain its future. Operations Director at Live Theatre, Jacqui Kell, tells us more: “In the mid 2000’s, our Chief Executive and board recognised that public sector investment was declining. We knew we had to do something radical. We run the largest free youth theatre programme in the region and a free creative writing programme for schools. But, of course, it’s only free for the young people who access it. These schemes are costly to run.”

“We are the only new-writing theatre in England, outside of London, and showcasing new writers and supporting experienced writers to write new works is our core reason for being. Therefore, by the very nature of what we do, we’re not a highly commercial product. And despite getting an Arts Council subsidy, we desperately needed to bring in more money. So, we decided to look at diversifying. 2

Cheers! to buying a pub

Initially, Live had the opportunity to develop the Broad Chare pub, which neighbours its theatre. The board said yes to that and this was the start of their journey into property. Over time they have built-up a great relationship with the tenant – Terry Laybourne’s 21 Hospitality Group – and have negotiated a share of the popular gastro pub’s turnover, as rent.

Next in the board’s property sights was a former Schoolhouse, built in 1753, part of the group of listed buildings which forms Live Theatre, this was developed into a creative incubator hub.

Finally, Live Theatre turned its attention to a lonely piece of land on the Quayside. Many of you will no doubt remember it. It was a derelict gap site, next to Charts pub, that had stood empty for over 70 years. It was arguably, the last remaining prime site on the East Quayside.

Risk

In 2014, Live bought the gap from UK Land Estates, which also came with 4,000 square feet of office space in the Coronation Buildings, next door. At that time, in a depressed property market, this would have been a brave move for any experienced property developer, let alone an arts charity. But, after extensive research into what they could build, how it could benefit the community and potential occupiers, they tentatively took the plunge.

Embarking on a very steep learning curve, the Live Theatre team set about developing a £10.5m commercial office space, public park and children and young people’s writing centre. The development allowed Live to diversify further, into the office market, and secure a regular income. But this was never just about the money. Jacqui explains: “We have strong ethics here at Live. We had a vision to build a facility that would help nurture fledgling businesses and create a community and sense of place across our estate that benefitted other organisations with a similar creative passion.”

Challenges

Although the team had experience of capital bids, planning and managing a multi-million-pound development and overseeing such a wide range of professionals, was daunting and at times, tough. Jacqui tell us more: “There was a lot of learning on the job but with help from the professionals we hired and friends of Live, we always managed to navigate through the challenges that were thrown-up. But there were very stressful periods.

“We had issues with access associated with working on a constrained city centre site and we incurred costs over this. Managing the legal and financial aspects was complex. We ended up securing an occupant for the Live Works office later than we would have liked. We soon realised that we needed to bring in an office agent in to help us fill the space.” The current tenant of the office space is augmented reality specialists, ZeroLight.

Jacqui concludes: “Honestly, I don’t know what position we’d be in if we hadn’t dared to dip our toes in different waters.” Property investment has ensured our future. It’s not all plain sailing but we had to seek out change and embrace it, to survive in different times.”