GVA brought in as consultant on Birmingham City University move
PROPERTY consultancy GVA has been appointed to advise on Birmingham City University (BCU)’s estates strategy in relation to vacating its City North Campus in Perry Barr.
The university is to transfer facilitiesto a new purpose-built city centre campus in Birmingham’s Eastside area.
Featuring a number of buildings totalling 51,500 sq m – including the student union, business school and education, law and social sciences faculty – the current nine hectare Perry Barr campus is used by some 8,500 students and around 900 staff.
GVA’s remit includes providing consultancy services on the acquisition of additional space for the university’s administration functions, ensuring that they remain closely aligned.
Senior director Carl Potter is leading GVA’s team. He said: “This is a significant project both in terms of physical scale and importance to the city as a whole, and we are extremely pleased to be able to provide advice both on the disposal of the university’s physical assets and wider consultancy services.”
GVA was appointed following a multidisciplinary pitch that included the company’s national markets and planning teams.
Graham Rhodes, director of estates at BCU, said: “The quality and calibre of their work, combined with their extensive experience, placed GVA in good stead in what was an exceedingly competitive process.
“This is a project of considerable scale, however we are satisfied that GVA will be able to assist us in achieving a smooth transition from Perry Barr to the heart of the city centre to meet our 2015 target.”
Work is already underway on the first phase of the City Centre Campus, which will house the Birmingham Institute of Art & Design (BIAD) and the School of Media Studies, and is due to open in September 2013.
The development’s second phase will incorporate the University Business School, Faculty of Education, Law and Social Sciences, and student-facing activities. Work is due to start in March 2013 with an opening date of September 2015.
