Urban Coffee chooses Beneficial Building for further expansion

BIRMINGHAM-based coffee shop group Urban Coffee has announced plans to open a fourth outlet in the city centre.

The company is investing £100,000 in the new outlet, which will be situated in the facelifted Beneficial Building, opposite Paradise Forum.

The 1960s former bank building is undergoing a £16m makeover that will see it transformed into a new hotel. The project is the brainchild of Gethar Ventures, led by city entrepreneur and former Wragge & Co lawyer Anthony McCourt.

Urban’s new outlet will be its largest in the city. The 161sqm ground floor space, with seating available upstairs, will enable the company to dramatically expand its food service with specific breakfast, lunch and dinner menus, plus a full bar service. The 16sqm kitchen will also be used to offer room service to the proposed hotel above.

Customers will be greeted by a 62.5sqm mezzanine area which will allow them to see into the kitchen through a steel mesh decorated with flowers and artwork. Raw materials such as concrete and painted brick will be used for work surfaces, whilst a graffiti art feature wall can lead to hours of gazing.

A ‘green’ wall filled with plants and flowers adorns the wall at the foot of the staircase. Upstairs, a 50sqm conference room is available to hire, with an entrance to the hotel also located on the upper level.

McCourt, a director at Gethar Ventures, said: “Urban Coffee Co was the obvious choice for us. Often hotels use the usual coffee shop chains, but we wanted an independent option to give guests something a little different. It’s one of Birmingham’s most vibrant brands with an unrivalled coffee offering.

“We have been impressed by their entrepreneurial skills from the get-go. They introduced the first of the ‘third wave’ of coffee emporiums here in Birmingham and pioneered the flat white coffee in the city.

Simon Jenner, owner and founder of Urban Coffee Co, said: “The recent explosion in the independent coffee scene has been fantastic and it gives the consumer so much choice within the sector. As a result, we’ve had to stay right at top of our game and work hard to stay ahead.

“This new site is testament to this and is especially exciting as we have a bigger budget than ever before for the kit out – we’ll certainly be going for a much quirkier look than in any of our other emporiums.”