When Garlands applied to South Tyneside Council for permission to build their Call Center they anticipated a workforce of about 800 and permission was granted for two office buildings and a large overspill car park:-
Garlands is delighted to announce a major business expansion, with the creation of a new contact centre in South Shields, South Tyneside in North East England. The centre will comprise two new office buildings totalling 47000 sq. ft. within a two acre site. Construction of the new eight hundred seat centre will be carried out by Mandale Commercial Ltd. and work will start immediately. The centre is expected to open in February 2008. Over a thousand people could eventually work at the site.
Garlands went into administration in May 2010 and the Centre was shut down before they even put the second office in to use.
The site appeared to have been cursed because UtilityWise used the main office building for a while but they too went into administration in 2014. The car park only ever had an occasional visitor for many years and then the bricks that were laid to make it started to disappear.
When the ‘Call Center’ was converted into housing it was all fenced off in what appeared to have been a land grab by the developer while he carried out the conversion.