RAPIDLY-growing S Harrison Developments Ltd, of Malton, is seeking yet again to expand, way beyond its North Yorkshire borders - this time with an £18 million project in the North East.

The company has submitted plans to build apartments on a derelict joinery works on East Quayside in Newcastle.

Harrison acquired the site last month and plans to build 107 homes - all with views of the Tyne - to the east of the new Millennium Bridge. The scheme creates a pedestrian link to an area of landscaped open space on the lower quayside.

Should it get the backing of Newcastle City Council, Harrison's development manager Ian Tulloch will be on site this summer bringing 200 construction jobs to the region in the hope of completing the project by 2006. Harrison has already spread its wings way beyond North Yorkshire as the company behind the £40 million redevelopment of Workington town centre in Cumbria and with £20 million worth of recently-announced projects in Sheffield.

Martyn Harrison, chairman, inherited the company from his late father, Stanley, who first established it as a small-scale building operation in Norton in 1952.

He said: "Because of the imaginative way in which we have designed the residential scheme, it will provide new homes that are within the financial reach of local people.

"It will also have great appeal to the investor market. This area of the city is long overdue for redevelopment and we are delighted to be leading the way."

Updated: 11:31 Friday, April 02, 2004