Birmingham’s long-vacant NatWest Tower finally sold
LONDON-based property investor Rockspring has bought the NatWest Tower in Birmingham’s business district.
The high-profile office building on the corner of Colmore Row and Newhall Street has been vacant for a decade but has been the subject of much speculation of late as potential buyers circled.
The exact purchase price has not been disclosed but Rockspring said it had agreed to buy the tower – officially known as 103 Colmore Row – from British Land on behalf of one of its clients in a multi-million pound deal.
Rockspring’s development partner is Sterling Property Ventures which has been active on the Birmingham property development scene for some time. It is currently developing the Lumina office building at Snow Hill and last year announced a joint venture project with Birmingham City Council to build a large mixed use development on the site of the ‘bomb site’ car park fronting Great Charles Street Queensway.
Sterling had been strongly linked with a deal for NatWest Tower of late.
Rockspring, which has offices in a number of countries, has been in acquisitive mood of late and has turned its focus squarely onto the English provinces. This month it bought central Manchester building Peter House for £23.7m while last month it announced it is funding the 70,000 sq ft 6 Queen Street development in central Leeds.
The 24-storey NatWest Tower was designed by ‘brutalist’ architect John Madin – who also designed Birmingham’s Central Library – and completed in 1976.
British Land bought the building in 2007 for £25.5m.
Meanwhile, several sources are suggesting that accountancy and advisory firm BDO, which is currently based in Colmore Row, is in advanced talks about taking 25,000 sq ft of space at Two Snowhill.
