DARLINGTON Civic Theatre's £12m transformation into The Hippodrome, while adding The Hullaballoon children's venue right next door, isn't just demanding The Full Monty from contractors Willmott Dixon.

Operations manager Sean McNicholas, from Billingham, views the contract, due to end in late autumn 2017, as a once in a lifetime opportunity.

"This is my first theatre because they don't come up very often, but it's an absolute one-off. Anything after this isn't going to be quite a disappointment, but not something you can get your teeth into like this. This is a Grade II listed structure, but over and above that there are many parts to it.

"There are seven buildings in total. The major areas are two restaurants, the theatre, box office, the Fire Station and the house which have to be amalgamated into the theatre and Hullaballoon and complement each other. The real challenge is all about programming and sequencing involving the right members of the supply chain. We have some tough targets of using local suppliers and about 80 per cent will come from a 25-mile radius. This means the demolition firm is from Durham and the scaffolding contractor is from Middlesbrough.

"The other big challenge is the unknown because we're dealing with a building that's more than 100 years old. Already, dealing with demolition there are doorways, openings and structures that we didn't expect to find. What we've designed today has to go through a full re-design process so that, in itself, takes a lot of hard work and careful coordination."

The roof structure of the old Fire Station and house has already created challenges. "The idea was the roof beams were to be exposed and be a decorative work, but we needed the structural engineer and architectural team on-site for an emergency meeting to re-design the job in three days because the ceiling we found wasn't going to be high enough. We had to take roof members out and add some steel beams and it got quite complicated. Every day's a school day because Willmott Dixon have taken a lot of risk on this. We've done a number of surveys... but the unknowns can involve there being more asbestos on site than expected," says McNicholas.

There is a "risk pot" built into the project – with the Hullaballoon a separately-funded £2.9m part of the build – but there is genuine concern that previous re-designs of the Civic might provide unexpected drama as the borough council attempt to retain the building's charm while moving seating and facilities into the 21st Century.

"You can see the building's timeline, as you expose the structure, of various developments particularly with the tiers of seats in the circle and upper circle which have gone through two or three changes. But there are a lot of unknowns as well. We've done all the service isolations, made the building safe with scaffolding and removed 80 per cent of the asbestos. There was a lot under the stage and in the restaurants for fire protection. We've taken down all the internal walls in the Fire Station and we're demolishing the non-structural elements to the old offices and changing rooms.

"The key focus is the knocking down of the old box office that is taking place over the next two or three weeks and once that's done we'll move into constructing the promenade, the beautiful walkway of the theatre's new entrance. I believe theatre director Lynda Winstanley's office used to be up the stars behind the box office, but it doesn't look like it used to now."

McNicholas is keen on theatre and was delighted to attend the Civic's farewell performance hosted by Christopher Biggins.

"I'll be looking forward to the first pantomime here and I'll certainly be taking along my little boy and family. Tomas is seven and just right for panto. He constantly asks what I'm doing at work. When I've done swimming pools and leisure centres in the past, I've taken him for a swim when they re-open, which is really satisfying. It's one of the best parts of the job, and I've promised him a panto visit here in 2017."

And does he prefer the name Civic or Hippodrome in future? "That's a great question. I'll say Hippodrome."

n Photographer Tom McGuire kindly supplied the images from the record he's keeping of the Civic-to-Hippodrome project