The Business

True Potential, one of the UK’s leading wealth management and financial advice firms – Headquarters at Newburn Riverside Business Park, Newcastle. A business in active expansion, with a growing workforce and ambitious long-term plans. A business that’s built its reputation on trust, precision, and genuine care for its clients. When it came to expanding their Newcastle headquarters, those values couldn’t stay at the door. They had to live in the building.

The Vision

Gateway House, a 28,000 sq ft, three-floor office building adjacent to True Potential’s existing Newburn House base had previously operated as a multi-tenanted building. The brief was to transform it into a single, unified headquarters that could accommodate a growing team, reflect the firm’s identity, and double their total on-site capacity at Newburn Riverside Business Park.

The design challenge wasn’t just about square footage. It was about creating an environment that communicates credibility the moment you walk through the door, supports deep focus and confidential conversations, and still feels genuinely energising to work in every day. Appointed via chartered surveyors and project managers Naylors, Chameleon were brought in to deliver exactly that.

The Change

Our team worked closely with True Potential from the very start, mapping how colleagues move through space, identifying where energy is needed versus where focus has to be protected, and ensuring the finished environment reflected the firm’s culture and brand at every level.

For a financial services business, confidentiality is non-negotiable. That consideration shaped the spatial planning throughout: a carefully considered distribution of meeting rooms and acoustic pods across all three floors means private conversations are never an afterthought, they’re built into the architecture of how the space works.

The ground floor sets the tone immediately. Two statement logo installations, one a bespoke handcrafted wooden piece with intricate joinery, the other illuminated, which establish True Potential’s identity from the moment you arrive. A reception area, café, and striking curved sofa complete a ground floor designed to impress clients and colleagues alike.

Above, open-plan desk space, central meeting rooms, and a kitchen on each floor create a working environment that’s as functional as it is considered. Real planting runs throughout, not as decoration, but as a genuine contributor to the atmosphere and daily wellbeing of everyone in the building.

The Achievement

Gateway House is now fully operational, a headquarters that works as hard as the people inside it. What was once a fragmented, multi-tenanted building is now a cohesive, single-occupier space that doubles True Potential’s capacity on site and gives their growing team room to move, collaborate, focus, and feel genuinely proud of where they work.

The project stands as one of the most significant commercial workspace completions in the North East in recent years, delivered on time by Chameleon’s in-house team: Rachel McDermott (Workplace Consultant), Kate McNay (Interior Designer), Harry Gamble (Project Manager), and Russ Drinkall (Site Manager).