Soft Market Testing Exercise for New HQ for Durham Council within Durham City

The purpose of this Notice is, prior to a potential procurement process, to gain an understanding of initial thoughts, appetite and information from potential delivery organisations, and the broader construction market, regarding a number of issues related to the delivery of the New Headquarters for the Council in Durham City.

The Council’s current Headquarters (HQ) is based on the Aykley Heads site in Durham City, but this site is likely to be required for redevelopment in the near future. The Council’s Regeneration Statement recognises the significant opportunity presented by the potential redevelopment of Aykley Heads as a Strategic Employment Site.

To help enable the Strategic Employment Site at Aykley Heads, the Council’s Cabinet agreed in principle in July 2015 to move the Council’s headquarters from the Aykley Heads site to significantly smaller headquarters in a Durham city centric location.
At this soft market testing stage the brief for a new HQ is still in development. Much work has been completed to date and is summarised in an Outline Employer’s Requirement (OER) document, contained within the Soft Market Testing documentation, which provides high level guidance on the Council’s requirements for the new HQ building. A number of working principles have been established as a baseline to inform the brief. These assumptions have driven an indicative gross internal area of circa 11,000m² and an indicative cost of up to £50 million.