It is directly south of the River Tees, and north of the current town centre, separated from it by the railway and A66.

It currently includes, from west to east: a manufacturing and industrial sector, Boho Zone developments (residential and commercial), the Old Town Hall, the Transporter Bridge, Middlesbrough College, docks, and the Riverside Stadium.

The original dock for the 1830 Port Darlington development became too small within a decade of opening, and needed expanding.

[7] Starting in 2006, Middlehaven was mentioned within the Tees Valley Metro scheme as a possible new station to better serve the Riverside Stadium.

In the initial phases the services would have been heavy rail mostly along existing alignments with new additional infrastructure and rollingstock.

[8][9][10][11] As part of the scheme, Markse station would have received improved service to Darlington and Saltburn (1–2 to 4 trains per hour) and new rollingstock.

[8] While never concrete or included in detailed plans, there was also mention of street-running trams being run within Middlesbrough town centre which may have ran throughout Middlehaven.