Birmingham office block set to be demolished for new £300m mixed-use scheme
A 1970s office building in Birmingham city centre is set to be demolished to clear the way for the first phase of a new £300m mixed-use scheme.
Calthorpe Estates has submitted plans to Birmingham City Council that will see the 16-storey Edgbaston House and adjoining car park levelled.
The property company last month revealed plans for the regeneration of a 10-acre site west of the A456 Hagley Road on the approach to Five Ways Island.
The plans, which are now part of a public consultation by Calthorpe Estates prior to a planning application being submitted in December, involve creating a mixed-use scheme around a garden square.
Dubbed New Garden Square, the scheme is a joint collaboration between Calthorpe Estates and regeneration specialist U+I, which has developed previous schemes in London, the south east, Manchester and Dublin.
Edgbaston House, in Duchess Place, will be the first landmark building to disappear as part of the scheme.
The distinctive concrete-clad tower was originally built by Laing Development in the mid 1970s for the then cost of £1,720,000.
The building was the result of work by Calthorpe Estates to attract businesses to the Hagley Road and Five Ways area by promoting the construction of office blocks there.
The building, whose previous tenants have included Islamic Bank of Britain and various medical groups, has now outlived its usefulness and rather than refurbish it in a similar way to some other towers in the city centre, the decision has been made to demolish.
The building, which opened in 1976, will be demolished by a process known as de-building. It will see the block dismantled floor by floor in a similar way to the removal of the former NatWest Tower on the corner of Colmore Row and Newhall Street.
The project will see Edgbaston House encapsulated in a specially-designed scaffold system so that disruption during the de-build is kept to a minimum.
Subject to planning permission being granted, it is thought the building could be taken down by November 2017.
