Construction completes on inaugural Friargate building
Construction has completed on One Friargate – the inaugural building on Coventry’s £700m new Friargate business district.
Work on the 13-storey office building has taken 100 weeks and now contractor Bowmer & Kirkland has handed over the building to Stephen Reynolds, of developer Friargate Coventry.
From October, the building will be occupied by 1,350 staff at Coventry City Council, while two floors will be taken by up to 300 staff from the Financial Ombudsman Service.
The original plan had been for the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors to locate around 300 of its own staff in the building but the plans fell through in April when RICS said it had chosen Birmingham instead to be the base for its regional headquarters.
Designed by architects Allies and Morrison, One Friargate is a low energy, premium office building with an open plan layout, overlooking Station Square, the intended heart of the Friargate scheme.
Friargate is the largest ongoing development in the West Midlands Combined Authority area and is generating new growth opportunities for the city. It is expected to capitalise on plans to redevelop the city’s railway station, which is next to the site.
Mr Reynolds said: “Friargate is an extremely important scheme for Coventry and the region and I am proud to see the completion of One Friargate. It is an outstanding new building that offers tenants a new way of working and has helped drive growth, employment and inward investment for the city.
“One Friargate sets the standard for the rest of the 37-acre Friargate scheme – which will include 13 more office buildings, alongside two hotels, homes and shops, transforming the area around the station and providing a world class welcome for those arriving by train.”
The next construction milestone at Friargate will be the demolition of the site office on Manor Road in early October, which will clear the site for construction of the next office building – Two Friargate. That building will offer 136,000 sq ft of Grade A space over 14 storeys, plus a glazed pavilion at top level offering views across the city, together with a double height ground floor with restaurant/café. Work is planned to start next year.
