City of Ambition

Business investment opportunities in Sunderland

Welcome to a city built on entrepreneurial spirit. Home to thriving global and national brands including Nissan, Ocado, JustEat and Tombola, Sunderland is well and truly open for business, with a hunger for innovation and collaboration fed by our Smart City connectivity and world-class digital infrastructure.

Recognised as a 'Climate A-Lister' by global environmental non-profit CDP, our city ranks amongst the best in the world for our efforts to reduce emissions and promote cleaner, greener business.

Nissan is charging ahead here with its vision for a zero-emissions future, announcing in autumn 2023 that its EV36Zero hub in the city will consist of three gigafactories and up to £3bn investment, with all three vehicles manufactured at the plant going fully electric.

We're already home to the most ambitious city-centre regeneration project in the UK: Riverside Sunderland is redefining sustainable living, working and leisure in a unique urban quarter that includes one million sq. ft. of modern offices, commercial premises and other employment space designed with flexibility for growth. One of the world's largest investment managers, Legal & General, committed £100m to deliver three of these buildings - including the award-winning Sunderland City Hall - after recognising the area's potential early on.

IAMP - the International Advanced Manufacturing Park - is setting the benchmark for the UK's advanced manufacturing hubs of the future, with 623,000 sq. ft. of enterprise space built to date and space for an additional one million sq. ft.

And the proposed Crown Works, the city's planned £450m film studio complex led by FulwellCain, a joint venture between Cain International and Fulwell 73, creators of Sunderland 'Til I Die, is set to bring a 1.68m sq. ft. creative entertainment-industry hub, 8,450 jobs and a wealth of contract opportunities, spanning sectors as diverse as technology, the trades and manual skills.

We're leading the way in developing a self-driving, zero-emission shuttle service to get around our Smart City too: the Sunderland Advanced Mobility Shuttle (SAMS) will transport passengers between our transport interchange, the University of Sunderland City Campus, and Sunderland Royal Hospital.

Searching for sites and opportunities to grow your business or invest in the initiatives of the future? Look no further.