Birmingham City Council is driving forward its strategy to dispose of city centre car parks, with a major sale and a flurry of new sites coming to market.
The council has agreed to sell the 250-year leasehold for the multi-storey car park at Brindley Drive to developer Court Collaboration.
The 0.8-acre site currently holds a 610-space car park, which was declared surplus in 2019. The council launched an informal tender that year, with planning workshops and final bids of £10m-15m accepted that September.
Court Collaboration was the highest bidder, beating off competition from rivals including national developers Argent and Federated Hermes and McAleer and Rushe.
The developer is expected to work up a scheme of up to 600 flats on the prime city centre site. It sits between the canal and the Paradise development, where Argent and Federated Hermes are building a 349-flat build-to-rent scheme valued at £100m.
The deal comes as Birmingham presses ahead with a strategy for further disposals of surplus sites, as it refocuses its portfolio and prepares the city for its Clean Air Zone. The zone aims to reduce city centre traffic, with charges for vehicles to come into operation this summer.
Although the Brindley Drive car park has attracted the most attention due to its location – which was pitched as suitable for a “prestigious” development – the council is also progressing a number of other sales.
It has appointed Avison Young to sell three city centres car parks, with a 0.5-acre site at Upper Gough Street, a 0.5-acre site at Holliday Street and a 0.3-acre site at Lawson Street, outside the city centre closer to Aston University.
Birmingham-based Court Collaboration is bringing forward a £1.3bn residential portfolio, with major sites lined up in Digbeth.
The developer was recently dealt a blow by the High Court, forcing it to reapply for planning for its consent for the city’s first skyscraper at its landmark One Eastside after the council failed to include all objections at the committee last year.
Last month, Court Collaboration also achieved consent for a 48-storey build-to-rent tower at the site of the former Irish Centre in the Deritend neighbourhood.
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