Andrew Hood

Ladywood & Rea Valley are areas of Birmingham that Birmingham City Council are looking to transform – and they’re actively seeking development partners to deliver major district level regeneration schemes, the recent Birmingham Development Plans events heard.

The council are seeking to build the 89,000 new homes needed within the metropolis to meet the increased demand from those moving to Birmingham, particularly due to the “affordability flight” from London.

Andrew Hood, Senior Service Manager at Birmingham City Council, said: “Strategic areas of transformation, Ladywood desperately needs the regeneration of 3-4000 homes at the moment.” [emaillocker id=”71749″]

The Ladywood project is one of the largest city centre regeneration sites in the country, covering 156-acres, of which 82 acres are council owned land.

Rea Valley Urban Quarter is a long-term project, with “planning documents taking that forward over the next 15-20 years”, according to Hood.  The plan involves creating 5000 new homes and turning the River Rea into a green corridor.

There is also a third district being developed by the city, Birmingham Smithfield, which has the preferred partner of Lendlease: “Smithfield is a large development, and we’ve selected Lendlease as the developer. This neighbourhood will feature offices, 2000 new homes, and a park. We’re creating a new place.”

Birmingham City Council are also developing around 3,000 homes themselves – with a development plan up to 2029. This is through their Birmingham Municipal Housing Trust, which Hood described as “some affordable, some outright sell homes, some market.”

The BT tower has since 1966 been the tallest landmark in Birmingham, yet that is soon to change as the city is going through a raft of high-rise, build to rent (BTR) development.

The second tallest of the consented developments is One East Side at an imposing 525ft, with 667 rental units developed by Court Collaboration.

Chris Keogh, Director of Development and Operations for Court Collaboration, told delegates that the project was “£160m fully forward funded” and the firm was “excited to get started in April this year, for a 40-month build.”

The developers are also working on the Stone Yard development in Digbeth, and Keogh detailed the scheme: “We are in planning for 920 residential with a mixture of amenity and commercial space on the ground floor.” 

The scheme is a “mixture of build to rent and open market sales as well” according to Keogh. The firm is also delivering another 1600 units across Digbeth and the East Side.

Digbeth is a surging area of Birmingham, with its revival being brought about by the flourishing creative community, particularly around the Custard Factory, which has been owned by Oval Real Estate since 2017.

Oval is keen to cement and expand on this sense of place for the area, Steve Sanders, Head of Development emphasised the “opportunity to create an independent, individual and industrious community.”

Oval have developed a masterplan for the Digbeth, soon to be submitted, which includes developing new residential, commercial, leisure, public realm and art, which totals 4m sq ft of space.

Public realm proposals include creating a sky park along the abandoned Duddeston Viaduct, enhancing the views of the river, and making sure new development meshes with existing heritage architecture.

Echoing the concern with public realm is Gavin Fraser, Managing Director of High Street Residential, who said that curating public realm “is very good for creating sustainable communities”

The developer is trialing this curated public realm at the Kent Street Baths development, a £100m, 504-home scheme on the site of a demolished 1930s swimming pool. Fraser said that the development would “house and host much more vibrant public realm.”

Mark Robinson, Director of Arena Central developments updated delegates on their progress on Arena Central, a major 1.2m sq ft development in Central Birmingham.

He said: “5 centenrary square, that’s our next building, that’s what we’re currently late stage 3 early stage 4 with design.”

Arena Central was acquired in April 2019 by Kier Property, and Robinson told delegates they are planning to “build on the success the scheme already had, delivering new offices for HMRC which will also host the Department for Work and Pensions.”

Robinson also assured attendees that there might still be procurement opportunities: “We are working with Galliford Try on Arena Central. There is no fixed rule that it would be Kier Construction, it might well be that there’s opportunities on that refurbishment.”

From the influx due to affordability flight, to promised new connectivity and the moving of major firms and government institutions to Birmingham, the UK’s second city is living up to its moniker in the property market, with opportunities abound. [/emaillocker]