Construction partner revealed for £50m Learning Quarter

CGI of the new City Learning Quarter

McLaughlin & Harvey has been revealed as the preferred construction partner for the delivery of Wolverhampton’s City Learning Quarter development.

The £50m scheme led by the City of Wolverhampton Council, will be set over 10,000 sq m and will encompass the City of Wolverhampton College’s Metro One Campus, the council’s Adult Education Service and Central Library.

The site, which is situated in the Old Hall Street and St. George’s Parade area of the city centre, will incorporate the corner of Garrick Street and Bilston Street, where the former Faces nightclub building once stood.

The City of Wolverhampton College will move from its Paget Road site, which has been identified as land to build ‘much-needed’ housing.

McLaughlin & Harvey will now develop designs and minor preparatory work ahead of construction starting in Spring.

Council leader Ian Brookfield said: “The appointment of our preferred construction partner now brings us within touching distance of being able to start works on this game-changing scheme – 2023 is going to be a huge year for the City Learning Quarter.

“The new facilities will provide a vital facelift as we re-imagine our city centre, which is benefiting from £1 billion of investment overall.”

The proposals were initially supported by a £6.2m investment from the Council and Black Country LEP, which enabled the site to be acquired and cleared, alongside design work.

The Council also secured £5m from the Towns Fund and £20m from the Levelling Up Fund.

A further £20m announced by the Department for Education’s Minister for Skills, Alex Burghart, resulted in all funding being in place to deliver the scheme.

The City of Wolverhampton College forecasts that over a 10-year period around 45,000 people will benefit from learning at the City Learning Quarter and around 7,500 apprenticeships will be started.

It is calculated that through energy-efficient buildings and traffic reduction, more than 600 tonnes of CO2 emissions will be prevented from being released into the atmosphere each year. It is also estimated that our air will be cleaner due to 310kg of NOX particles not being discharged into the city.

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