One of the North East’s iconic buildings has become the new home of Aspire Technology Solutions Ltd following an 18 month renovation project.

Fast-growing Aspire – which has sites in Hebburn, Central London and Sunderland – has invested in excess of £1m in restoring and updating Grade-II* listed Heworth Hall located on Shields Road in Gateshead and invited the Mayor of Gateshead, Councillor Joe Mitchinson to officially unveil the new building.

Speaking at the opening of Aspire’s new headquarters, The Mayor of Gateshead said: “Heworth Hall has been a recognisable structure in Gateshead since the 1600s and over the past 18 months, Aspire has worked closely with Gateshead Council and English Heritage to breathe new life into the building. This modern office space, which retains many of the original features, will now help to provide more jobs for the borough and I hope it will continue to go from strength to strength.”

Of the company’s ongoing success, Nigel Begg, Managing Director of Aspire said: “The development of Heworth Hall has been a real labour of love for all involved but the result is a magnificent head office for Aspire which undeniably makes a statement about us as a business. When you think that we started out just five years ago as a two-man business and now we have 25 existing members of staff and more to come in early 2012 plus four sites across the North East and London.”

Chris Fraser, Technical Director for Aspire added: “Heworth Hall is really the icing on the cake for us, it’s been a challenging journey but we now feel that Aspire has arrived. The new building forms just part of our ambitious expansion plans which are set to continue moving forward. We have new products and services in the pipeline, a number of partner announcements to make, additional members of staff coming on board and a whole host of exciting developments that I believe will take our business to the next level.”

L-R Nigel Begg, the Mayoress of Gateshead, the Mayor of Gateshead and Chris Fraser