2006 the 1960s tower building was demolished by Thompsons of Prudhoe, and building work began on its replacement building in June 2006. Building the new tower was the final phase of the redevelopment of the Gosforth site. The design for this new tower was similar to the sandstone and glass buildings built in the early 2000s. The Red Box Design Group has been involved with the development of all of the currently standing buildings for the bank. The new 10-storey building cost £35 million. Taylor Woodrow was the main contractor, and companies such as Desco and Red Box Architecture were involved with the design and construction. The building has been designed to achieve an "Excellent" BREEAM rating. The tower has a semi circular floor plate containing flexible open plan space and external roof top hospitality facilities. After the bank's nationalisation In September 2007 Northern Rock received emergency liquidity support from the Bank of England, due to problems stemming from the subprime mortgage crisis. After the press reported the news, a bank run commenced, where scared customers began to pull their money out of the bank. Private bids for the bank failed, and eventually in February 2008, the bank was nationalised. At the time of its nationalisation, the bank was midway through construction of the 10-storey tower which was intended to create 1500 jobs, and act as the main entrance and focal point of the company headquarters. The nationalisation led to the company deciding to downsize, including job cubs and deciding to put this new tower building up for let or sale, as the additional space had become surplus to requirements. The company's other site at Rainton Bridge was also to be sold or let to a third party. The new tower block, simply known as The Tower, was completed in November 2008. The Tower which had a Restaurant area on the ground floor and coffee shop facilities on first floor, had a total lettable area of 120,023sq ft. Gavin Black & Partners and GVA Lamb & Edge were appointed as the joint sole agents for the property. At November 2009 the lease for the building stood at £2.25 million a year. Sale to the council and leasing Newcastle City Council proposed to spend £22 million purchasing the building, and will let it out to another firm, a company set up by the council with support services firm Eaga, on a