Plans unveiled for 263,000 sq ft office tower in central Birmingham
ROYAL Bank of Scotland internal property company West Register has put in for outline planning permission for a 263,150 sq ft office tower in Cornwall Street, Birmingham.
The building is the former KPMG Birmingham headquarters. The accountancy firm occupied the whole of building until it moved to nearby One Snowhill at the end of 2010.
West Register took control of 2 Cornwall Street last year when it bought the long leasehold from Irish developer Ballymore, the firm behind the Snowhill development.
According to real estate news site CoStar, locally-based property consultancy GVA has lodged outline plans with Birmingham council drawn up by Associated Architects on behalf of West Register for a majority demolition of the building and a 263,150 sq ft office tower across 13 floors with up to 6,250 sq ft of retail at ground floor level.
The scheme would offer 200,000 sq ft of Grade A offices.
In its application GVA said that the building would help address a chronic lack of supply of Grade A space looming in Birmingham city centre.
Although many other office schemes have been mooted, agents fear that once the newly built Two Snowhill fills up there will be little significant space of note to attract would-be occupiers to the city centre.
CoStar cites GVA’s estimate that the scheme would deliver a direct investment into the local economy of some £40m from the project cost and the direct creation of approximately 250 construction jobs.
