Rockspring Property Investment Managers LLP (Rockspring) has received planning permission to build Birmingham’s tallest office tower at 103 Colmore Row, with development partner Sterling Property Ventures (Sterling).
Birmingham City Council has given Rockspring the go-ahead to demolish the 22-storey, 1970s-built NatWest Tower, which has been unoccupied since 2003, and replace it with a new £60 mln (approx. €85.6 mln) 26-storey landmark building. Planning committee members unanimously approved the scheme.
At 105.5 m high and with the apex to stand 246 m above sea level, the new tower will be the tallest office building under construction in the UK outside London. Designed by Doone Silver Architects, an international practice with a strong track record in designing award-winning skyscrapers, it will comprise 200,000 ft² (approx. 18,600 m²) of Grade A office space over 19 floors with floorplates of up to 12,000 ft² (approx. 1,100 m²).
At street level, plans include a winter garden, a café facing Colmore Row and a retail unit fronting Newhall Street. At the top of the building there is provision for a 8,600 ft² (approx. 800 m²) restaurant with a 3,250 ft² (approx. 300 m²) ‘lantern’ space offering 360-degree views of the city.
Demolition contractors H Smith (Engineers) Ltd have been on site since mid-July, stripping out the building’s interior. Scaffolding is now being erected to allow for the floor-by-floor dismantling of the concrete tower, which will take around 12 months. The two-storey former banking hall fronting Colmore Row is scheduled to be removed by November this year.
Work on erecting the new tower will begin in summer 2016, creating 500 construction jobs and completion is targeted for summer 2018.
In addition to Doone Silver, Rockspring and Sterling’s professional team includes planning advisers GW Planning Ltd; project managers Quantem Consulting LLP; structural engineers Davies Maguire & Whitby; mechanical and engineering consultants Watkins Payne and landscape designers Robert Townshend.
Letting agents on the office space are Colliers International, DTZ, and Knight Frank.
