Review of the Year – Part Two

A SURGE in property deals, the development of HS2, the collapse of a high profile retail group and a clutch of sporting stories dominated the news agenda in the second half of the year.

July

Birmingham was ablaze with the news that the national headquarters for the HS2 high speed rail operation was to be set up in offices at Two Snowhill, creating hundreds of new jobs. However, there were concerns that the move would deplete the city of much of its Grade A office stock.

There was also optimism about the future of Birmingham Airport as the opening to the hub’s extended runway saw the arrival of direct flights to China for the first time.

The latest Growth Deal settlement was also hailed as good news for the Greater Birmingham area as the transport and advanced manufacturing sectors were targeted as the main beneficiaries of the £357m funding injection.

Elsewhere on the commercial property front, innovative developer Urban Splash finally said farewell to the Fort Dunlop as it sold the iconic building to a property fund.

As preparations for the new football season got underway, Aston Villa revealed that chief executive Paul Faulkner had quit the club, fuelling speculation owner Randy Lerner may have struck a deal to sell the club.

August

Good news on the inward investment front came as challenger energy firm extraenergy announced it had selected Birmingham as the base for its new headquarters. It was also confirmed that the official opening of the redeveloped New Street Station and its associated Grand Central shopping and leisure scheme would take place in September 2015.

The commercial sector woke from its summer slumber with the sale of the Great Western Arcade for £15m and a deal which saw a London investor snap up Eleven Brindleyplace. Consent was also granted for the first commercial building on the revised Arena Central scheme.

Wolverhampton-based Carillion, which had courted Balfour Beatty for a merger, called off the deal after the two firms failed to agree terms on the deal.

This month also saw the company awarded the licence to operate Birmingham’s first local digital TV station, City TV , finally put out of its misery as administrators were called in to oversee the affairs of the company after it failed to attract the investment it needed to set the operation up.

On the sporting front, it was confirmed that Coventry City were ending their self-imposed exile at Northampton with a return to the Ricoh Arena. However, little changed for Birmingham City as the St Andrews club warned it faced ‘significant losses’.

September

Birmingham underlined its ambitions to be a major European city after the news it had been named the UK’s top destination for tourists for the second year in succession.

However, it was not all good news for the city as the cash-strapped city council warned it may have to axe a further 6,000 jobs before its books were balanced.

Further bad news on the jobs front came with the collapse of Staffordshire mobile phone retailer Phones 4u. The collapse of the firm – brought about after network operators failed to renew service agreements – saw thousands of job losses, although some were later saved as deals were negotiated by the network operators to buy back some of the former stores.

The business community in the West Midlands breathed a sigh of relief as voters in Scotland decided not to sever ties with the rest of the UK.

October

The Jaguar Land Rover success story rolled on with the official opening by HM The Queen of its new £500m engine manufacturing centre at the i54 business park near Wolverhampton – the opening coming just weeks ahead of the firm’s launch of production at its new JV plant in China and following the announcement it was setting up its new Special Vehicle Operations unit at Ryton.

However, it was not all good news for the region’s manufacturing sector as that other industrial powerhouse, JCB, announced it was cutting 150 jobs because of a slowdown in demand across the emerging markets.

Following on from Coventry City’s return to the Ricoh Arena, news broke that rugby Premier League side Wasps had brought the stadium in a £20m deal and planned to use it as its home ground from December.

Meanwhile another of the region’s famous arenas – the NIA – revealed a major new sponsorship with Barclays which would see the building renamed the Barclaycard Arena.

Following on from confirmation that Birmingham would be the national headquarters of HS2, came the news that the city had also been chosen as the location for the National College for High Speed Rail.

This month also saw conformation that Staffordshire’s unique piece of industrial heritage, the world-famous Wedgwood Collection had been saved from being sold after a public appeal – supported by TheBusinessDesk.com – successfully raised £2m.

November

Birmingham’s double whammy so far as HS2 was concerned, saw foreign investors from Qatar express an interest in investing in regeneration projects surrounding the Curzon station.

The city’s commercial property sector also enjoyed further good news with the sale of the long-vacant NatWest Tower, while GVA said Birmingham office activity had drawn closer to a five-year high.

On the jobs front, the work of the Local Enterprise Partnerships for Greater Birmingham and Solihull, plus that in the Black Country was cited as the driving force behind the creation of 3,000 new jobs for the region.

There was also more good news for the NEC Group as it revealed a second major sponsorship deal, this time with Genting as the Resorts World operator revealed it had secured the naming rights for the NEC Arena from January.

Close by, there was also a further boost for Birmingham Airport as the hub revealed American Airlines was set to begin flights to New York’s JFK Airport.

December

After collecting a clutch of accolades for its various attractions, Birmingham rounded off a successful year by being named among the top ten most exciting destinations to visit in 2015, in a list compiled by the travel guidebook series Rough Guides.

The appeal of the city was enhanced after the England and Wales Cricket Board revealed it was awarding Edgbaston an additional 28 days of major international and domestic cricket between 2016 and 2019. The package includes three Test Matches including a further Ashes game in 2019 to go with the one already lined up for next summer.

Continuing the sporting theme, there were further upheavals at Birmingham City after an extraordinary online rant by former acting chairman Peter Pannu saw Blues parent, Birmingham International Holdings move to relegate him as CEO of the board down to a lowly executive director.

Birmingham City Council’s woes were never far away from the headlines and it rounded off a tough year by receiving a warning it could be placed into special measures if it continued to cut back services, the latest of which saw opening hours at the flagship Library of Birmingham reduced.

This month also saw the revival of controversial plans to build a new motorway services area serving the M42, neat to Solihull. This could be real hot potato for planners as we move into 2015.

Next year could also be coloured by increasing talks of devolved powers to the regions. The Scottish independence vote put the issue into sharp focus and following George Osborne’s Autumn Statement there were calls for the various local authorities and LEPs in the region to work more closely together to ensure the area receives a fair deal following next year’s General Election.