When Michelle Chen first viewed the derelict Victorian warehouse on Collingwood Street three years ago, most property developers saw a liability. Chen saw possibility—and the catalyst for a hospitality revolution that's now redefining how visitors experience Newcastle's city centre.
Today, her company Helix Spaces operates four distinct venues across the Grainger Town neighbourhood, each occupying carefully restored historic properties. What began as a single craft gin bar has evolved into an integrated experience that generated an estimated £2.3 million in visitor spending last year, according to data from Newcastle's Business Improvement District.
"The visitor economy here was fragmented," Chen explained via email. "People came, visited the Quayside, maybe caught a show at the Theatre Royal, then left. We wanted to give them a reason to stay, to explore the streets less travelled."
Her strategy has worked. The Helix collective—comprising a tasting room, design-focused boutique hotel, experimental kitchen space, and artist residency—now attracts roughly 40,000 visitors annually. Social media data suggests 61% identify as international tourists, with particularly strong demographics from Scandinavia and North America.
What distinguishes Chen's approach is her insistence on local partnership. Her venues source 73% of food and beverage supplies from Northumberland and Durham producers. The boutique hotel employs 24 staff, predominantly from Newcastle postcodes. The artist residency has hosted 18 creators since launch, generating secondary cultural tourism benefits that local economic analysts estimate add another £400,000 annually to surrounding businesses.
"She's cracked a code many cities chase," said Dr. James Whitmore, leisure and tourism specialist at Newcastle University Business School. "Boutique, curated experiences that feel authentic rather than manufactured. It's particularly effective in heritage cities with existing infrastructure but underutilised spaces."
Chen's success hasn't gone unnoticed. She's been approached for expansion proposals in Jesmond and the Ouseburn Valley. Tourism Newcastle has cited her model in their 2026 visitor strategy refresh, targeting £1.2 billion in annual visitor economy revenue by 2030—up from £980 million pre-pandemic.
Yet Chen remains cautious about overexpansion. "Our strength is being deeply rooted, understanding individual neighbourhoods, respecting their character," she noted. "Scale matters less than authenticity. That's what international visitors remember."
As Newcastle competes for post-pandemic tourism recovery against Manchester, Edinburgh, and Liverpool, entrepreneurs like Chen represent the city's clearest competitive advantage: genuine innovation rooted in place, not extracted from it.
This article was compiled by AI from the sources linked above and screened before publishing. See our editorial standards.
