Plans by Richardson Barberry Properties to turn Birmingham’s former Lewis’s store into a 321,000-sq ft office scheme have been recommended for approval by the city planning officer.
Within the £40m plan there will also be 20,904 sq ft of shops at ground level; four ground-floor units will front Corporation Street with six more in The Minories.
All subway entrances to the scheme from Old Square, Corporation Street and Colmore Circus will be sealed off in line with the council policy of closing subways and bringing pedestrians up to ground level again.
The Lewis’s project is one of three major Birmingham schemes that are planned by the Richardson brothers. The Fort Dunlop building at Erdington will become a hotel and shops complex and there is also a hotel proposal for Edgbaston’s former St Chad’s Hospital.
