’15 years of trying to get it right – and now we have finally got it right’
NEC Group chief executive Paul Thandi has declared the launch of the masterplan for an urban village at the leisure giant’s Solihull campus is the result of “15 years of work”.
Thandi joined the NEC as commercial director in 2006 before becoming the group’s chief executive a year later.
He received a CBE in the 2020 New Year’s Honours List for services to the economy and has continued to lead the NEC Group through the bruising experience of the pandemic, which badly hit the live events industry.
He said: “I’m so excited to share our masterplan. This is 15 years of work, 15 years of trying to get it right and now we have finally got it right.”
The planned HS2 Birmingham Interchange station
The vision for the site is being brought forward in partnership with landowners Birmingham City Council and is part of the transformational change planned for Solihull that includes the creation of a HS2 station, Birmingham Interchange.
While the pandemic and politics about the second phase of HS2 – which would take the railway lines north from Birmingham’s city centre station, Curzon Street – had caused momentum to slow on the urban village ambitions, today’s announcement is a milestone for the project.
Thandi wants the NEC’s urban village plans to be important to the West Midlands and not just to Solihull.
“Now is the time to be bold and ambitious about the future to drive investment and prosperity in the region,” he said. “For the West Midlands this revival can harness the benefits of our young, diverse, and entrepreneurial population.”
The urban boulevard planned for the urban village on the NEC campus
He sees the urban village connecting this population with the rest of the country, taking advantage of the existing transport infrastructure and the arrival of high-speed trains that are set to take people from Birmingham Interchange to London Euston in just 38 minutes.
“Our location is talked about as the best in Europe,” he said. “We have an international airport right next door. We have an international train station right next door and in the future we will have High Speed 2 coming across our site. The motorway network passes our door.
“We will be connected in every single way.”
NEC Group’s Paul Thandi won TheBusinessDesk.com’s Ambassador award in 2017
He acknowledged the masterplan revealed today, which updates an outline vision set out in 2018, reflects “changing market demands” in a post-pandemic economy. But he belives it matches the ambition of the original idea.
“The new masterplan sets out a bold plan for future development to create a truly unique environment to work, rest, live and play,” said Thandi.
“It defines the scale of the opportunity and demonstrates how new residential, commercial, leisure and community space alongside the supporting amenities and public realm can be delivered.
“This scale of development will meet the needs of the region’s growing population and enterprising businesses.”
Read more on the NEC masterplan:
>> Plans for 5,000-home urban village revealed
Hugely-ambitious NEC Campus scheme includes 380,000 sq ft of commercial space and 150,000 sq ft of outdoor event space>> City leaders excited by ‘Birmingham’s golden decade’ from Games to homes
2022 Commonwealth Games fires starting gun on post-pandemic period of investment and opportunity
