THE Cube at Birmingham’s Mailbox complex is known as a bit of a ‘Marmite’ building in the city – you either love it or hate it. As the tower begins to fill up with tenants and residents, TheBusinessDesk.com enjoys a guided tour.

FOR many, The Cube has become a symbol of how the credit crunch and recession had a devastating effect on the property industry.

Work started on the green building in 2007 but last March the news broke that Birmingham Development Company, the developer behind the project, had slipped into administration.

But unlike Two Snow Hill, the grey unfinished tower which has blighted Birmingham’s business district skyline for over two years, The Cube ploughed on.

Administrators PwC and financer Lloyds TSB have carried on with the building work undeterred, meaning contracts have now been exchanged on residential apartments and a key tenant, the Highways Agency, has taken 55,000 sq ft across two-and-a half floors of grade A office space.

In addition, Lancashire-based Sanguine Hospitality is building a hotel, a 14,000 sq ft Marco Pierre White restaurant and sky bar and spa while smaller office suites are also available on other floors.

The building has separate cores meaning residents, hotel guests and office staff can access their own accommodation via different entry points, providing separation and less chance of disturbance.

It’s this mix of uses, in what is seen as a leisure-focused location next to a boutique shopping centre, which lies at the core of The Cube’s appeal, according to the man tasked with selling it to potential tenants.

• PICTURE GALLERY: Take a tour of The Cube

“From an office point of view, it’s a fantastic, large floor plate so you get the economies of scale for getting everybody on a single floor,” says Matthew Long, associate director with real estate agency DTZ in Birmingham.

“On the other side, it’s an exciting, vibrant space to work in. With the mixed uses, you don’t just have an office but you have the foot flow through the spa, hotel and restaurant offering.

“It’s that whole live, work, play balance here. It’s like a living, breathing entity and that’s one of its benefits. It doesn’t shut down at a certain time at night.”

He added: “The mechanicals, electrics and specification allow you to densely occupy offices. The Highways Agency has around 700 staff and I think they were previously in over 100,000 sq ft in Edgbaston. I believe the remaining 55,000 sq ft will go to a single occupier.”

If you are looking for a downside, The Cube is not in the heart of the city’s business district in and around Colmore Row and does not benefit from having New Street and Snow Hill stations right on its doorstep.

Mr Long, right, believes this could equally deter and attract certain types of office occupiers.

“We are technically in the city core but not in the heart of the central business district but that has benefits to some people as they don’t want to be there,” he added.

“The only thing, and I don’t think of it as a negative, is the realism of where we are. You might have a type of sector that need to be in the core.

“We recognise there are different types of marketplaces. There are lawyers that would probably want to stay in the core and be around other lawyers and the banks.

“You have a clustering effect of, perhaps, lawyers in one location in the city centre who don’t want to be a bit further away like we are here.”