Developers propose major city centre apartment scheme
Developers have submitted plans for a major new residential scheme close to Birmingham city centre.
ESRG Developments is planning to redevelop the plot at 274 Bradford Street in Digbeth to create 165 apartments, together with associated highway, drainage and ancilliary work.
The 0.33ha site sits on the corner of Bradford Street and Birchall Street, opposite the Harrison Drape site. To the south lies the proposed Connaught Square development, which surrounds the Grade II listed White Swan pub.
The scheme forms part of ESRG Developments’ wider plans to regenerate the area through new residential use.
Late last year it submitted plans for 440 new apartments elsewhere in Bradford Street.
A planning statement in support of the latest proposal has been prepared by DPP Planning.
It states that the site is currently a target for anti-social behaviour, which is having a detrimental effect on the area.
However, it concludes the new development, along with other similar residential schemes in the area, will deter such behaviour in the future.
The proposed development would comprise 65 one-bed apartments and 100 two-bed apartments, spread over six floors. There would be a residents’ lobby, bin storage area and cycle storage space. There would only be 18 car parking spaces, with two designated for disabled use.
The development would be constructed around the perimeter of the site, forming a U-shape block.
“The proposed development will make a valuable and vital contribution towards the delivery of new high quality homes in the city centre, providing a range of dwelling types in order to respond to the housing need,” says the statement.
“The scheme will also bring back into active use a previously developed site which in turn, will enhance the activity in this (part) of the city centre.
It will also contribute to the ongoing regeneration of the of the Digbeth Quarter, it adds, helping to support existing retail, leisure and cultural facilities.
It added that while the application would result in the loss of employment land – something to which the city council would normally be opposed – the planning gain from the apartments would more than compensate for this.
