Arena Central Developments, the joint venture between Miller Developments and Andy Ruhan’s Bridgehouse Capital, has won detailed consent for what it says will be the first speculatively developed office block in Birmingham city centre since the start of the latest property cycle.
The building known as 1 Arena Central will kick-start office development at the 2.3m sq ft mixed-use scheme and will provide 140,000 sq ft of grade A space across eight floors, with typical floorplates of 21,000 sq ft. It will front Broad Street and sit opposite the existing Centenary Square and the new Library of Birmingham. Around 5,000 sq ft of ground floor retail and 68 parking spaces will also be included.
1 Arena Central has been designed by Ken Shuttleworth’s MAKE architectural practice and is the first step in the masterplan for the 9.2-acre mixed-use site. Outline consent is already in place, including 860,000 sq ft of grade A office space, more than 200,000 sq ft of residential, 2,500 car parking spaces and more than 1.2m sq ft of retail and leisure space.
Jonathan Wallis, director at ACDL, said: “With reserved matters planning consent now secured, we are poised to begin the first phase of development at Arena Central in earnest, and 1 Arena Central could be available to occupiers in mid-2016, ahead of the competition. Our location provides an outstanding advantage to occupiers in terms of the availability of amenities and access to transport links, with a stop on the new Midland Metro tram due to be delivered adjacent to the building’s main entrance.”
1 Arena Central features a curved façade with a contemporary chequerboard motif, designed to encourage pedestrian traffic onto the site and forming an extension to Broad Street. The building also features 2,500 sq ft of balconies on the top floor, providing views across Centenary Square and back towards the Mailbox and Cube.
Martin Guest, director at CBRE, letting agent on Arena Central with GVA, said: “The recent absorption of 100,000 sq ft of stock at Two Snowhill is only exacerbating the current dearth of high-quality stock in the city. The city needs deliverable opportunities such as this in order to meet the rising demand for high-quality office stock from blue-chip corporate occupiers such as Deutsche Bank.”
Alongside 1 Arena Central, the planning committee also approved the development’s infrastructure works and a modification to the site’s public realm, which will form the first element of Arena Central’s phased delivery programme. Running from the north to the south side of the site, the public realm has been designed as an urban meadow.
Clearance work on the site is already underway, with further demolition of the remaining buildings due to start shortly. Work on 1 Arena Central and the new public realm is set to start in early 2015.
lisa.pilkington@estatesgazette.com
