Cube restaurant and hotel fit-out to cost up to £12m

THE FIT-OUT of the new Marco Pierre White restaurant on the top floor of the Cube building, and the Indigo Hotel and spa, will cost operator Sanguine Hospitality up to £12m.

Speaking yesterday in the top floor shell that will be the location for Marco Pierre White’s Steakhouse restaurant next year, Sanguine MD Nick Taplin said: “The restaurant is the biggest design I’ve given our interior design team because they don’t have any walls to work with. The city is the backdrop and they will have to do some very imaginative things with floor-to-ceiling furniture.

“The fit out starts on January 4, and will cost between £10m and £12m.”

Mr Taplin was attending a launch event for the Cube, at which developer Neil Edginton gave details of occupancy rates in the building, but also admitted the current office market was a challenge.

Mr Edginton said: “On the canalside level – level six – we have 50% currently let, but we’re hoping to announce a restaurant and cocktail bar here after Christmas.

“On level seven, we’re hoping to announce another restaurant and coffee shop, and we’ve another surprise to announce then too.”

Plans for more retail units on level eight had been canned, said Mr Edgington because of the recession, and instead, four small office suites had been built, two of which were occupied.

“In terms of offices we have 50% let to the Highways Agency, and already several hundred people are working here every day,” he said, but admitted that there was work to be done to let out the remaining Grade A office space in the development: “There is interest out there, but it is tough out there with a lot of completed schemes in the city.”

Mr Edgington said of the 244 appartments planned for the residential part of the Cube scheme, the 130 which were pre-sold are now going forward to completion, with up to 50 expected to be occupied by Christmas. The remaining untis would be marketed in the new year, he said.

However, Mr Taplin, right, revealed that Sanguine would be interested in adding to the Indigo Hotel’s planned 52 bedrooms by taking oiver some of the unsold apartments.

He joked: “Subject to talking to the Cube, maybe we can take some of the apartments, but Neil’s not budging at the moment!”

Mr Taplin said his company had ambitious growth plans for Birmingham and the rest of the UK, and indicated he thought the leisure scene in the city was ripe for a shake-up.

Mr Taplin said the Marco Pierre White Steakhouse and Grill would have 250 covers and two open ‘theatre’ kitchens in the middle of the restaurant.

He said the restaurant would offer ‘affordable glamour’, and referring to the chef’s famous rejection of his Michelin stars, said: “There’s a place for Michelin starred restaurants, but I don’t think that approach is right for the Cube. It’s affordable glamour, it’s a restaurant we want the people of Birmingham to enjoy, and we certainly want people to be able to come here more than once a year.

“We’ve worked with Marco for past two-and-a-half years. This is our fifth project with him and I must say it’s been a fun, enjoyable journey. Marco is the godfather of English cookery. The guy trained Gordon and Heston – what more could you ask for?”