Birmingham city council has unveiled a 20-year vision for the city which could see an annual investment of £600m and circa 2m sq ft of new office space.
The council, together with the Colmore Business District BID, launched the city’s Snow Hill masterplan this morning, aiming to create a new professional services hub for the city and to drive growth and regeneration activity in the area.
The masterplan sets out the council’s vision to 2035 and key development principles for the Snow Hill and Colmore districts, and will see the currently outdated Snow Hill station transformed into a world-class transport hub, akin to the revamped New Street station.
Providing a framework for development, the masterplan envisages circa 1m sq ft of the 2m sq ft of extra office floorspace created around the existing Snow Hill railway station. Improved transport links and connectivity are a key part of the 28-page document.
Snow Hill station will see the major redevelopment on the site of the Livery Street car park, which will be dropped to make way for major commercial buildings. The council, Network Rail and local stakeholders have been in talks since then.
A new station concourse area will be created and new walking routes provided through the station. The A38 will be transformed to create a new urban boulevard connecting the neighbouring Jewellery and Gun quarters, and a new urban neighbourhood in the Steelhouse Lane area will be created. As part of the proposals, regeneration opportunities will also centre around the Birmingham Children’s Hospital site on Whittall Street and the law courts area on Steelhouse Lane.
The masterplan also includes provision for 4,000 new homes and 10,000 new jobs. The duo says it will boost the local economy by more than 600m each year.
Designed to support existing investments including the £30m restoration of the historic Grand Hotel, the arrival of HS2’s new construction headquarters at Two Snowhill (pictured below) – which will employ 1,500 people – and the extension of the £127m Midland Metro network, the masterplan will see a six-week public consultation exercise to launch on 9 February. Other schemes included in the masterplan are the Great Charles Street site (pictured above) and 103 Colmore Row where regeneration is already planned.
Waheed Nazir, director of planning and regeneration at Birmingham council, said: “This masterplan, coupled with the plans for major redevelopment at Paradise Circus and Arena Central, the £1bn plus being invested in local infrastructure and the proposals for HS2, means Birmingham’s attractiveness as a location to invest will only increase.”
Sir Albert Bore, leader of Birmingham city council, added: “Birmingham is putting in place the building blocks for a global business and financial centre.
“The Snow Hill masterplan provides a bold and exciting proposal for how Birmingham can continue to grow its thriving business and professional services sector. With time, we want the city to replicate the success of Canary Wharf, with areas like the Snow Hill district forming the cornerstone of this vision.”
Birmingham will see the £600m transformation of Birmingham New Street station complete later this year, with the long-awaited completion of the Grand Central shopping arcade and the opening of the largest John Lewis store outside London. A £50m refurbishment of the Mailbox shopping centre is due to open in the spring.
The plan will draw upon funding from the city’s Growth Deal and Birmingham’s city centre enterprise zone – with the council working with partners including CBD, Centro and Network Rail.
lisa.pilkington@estatesgazette.com
