Paradise Birmingham to consult with public over plans for completion of Phase Two
Plans to complete Phase Two of Paradise Birmingham are being showcased as part of a major public consultation exercise before formal submission of detailed planning applications to Birmingham City Council in summer 2021.
The details include plans for two new buildings – a hotel at the south western corner of the development, overlooking Paradise Street and Suffolk Street Queensway, and an office building, Three Chamberlain Square, fronting Paradise Street – plus new public realm around the buildings, including Ratcliff Square and Western Terrace.
The new 17 storey hotel, which has been designed through a collaboration between hotel specialists ISA Architecture & Design and Paradise masterplanners Glenn Howells Architects, will provide much needed high-quality boutique accommodation in the city centre. It will feature 152 bedrooms, a ground floor food and beverage offering, plus a sky bar with panoramic views across the city.
Three Chamberlain Square, the new 180,000 sq ft ten storey office building, has been designed by award winning Feilden Clegg Bradley Studios (FCBStudios) and will offer the highest standards in terms of workplace wellbeing, and some of the most sustainable commercial space ever brought forward in the regions.
The new public realm is being designed by Grant Associates landscape architects who designed the public realm in Phase One, including Chamberlain Square. The new public realm in Phase Two includes Ratcliff Passage, between the Town Hall and Three Chamberlain Square, which will become the new home of statues of James Watt and Joseph Priestley and provide a new tree-lined route to the Town Hall tram stop.
Ratcliff Square lies between Three Chamberlain Square and the hotel, and Western Terrace will lead down to the refurbished Easy Row walkway and through to Arena Central and Broad Street. These new public spaces continue the success of the recently completed Chamberlain Square.
The public consultation exercise will take place online from 7 to 30 July through the Phase Two page on this website and will feature further detailed information on the proposals as well as opportunities to give feedback, record comments and take part in an online discussion with the architects’ and development team on Tuesday 13 July from 6pm – 7pm.
Phase One of Paradise, which completed earlier this year, includes the first two buildings, One Chamberlain Square and Two Chamberlain Square, as well as new public realm across the estate, including Chamberlain Square itself.
In April of this year Birmingham City Council also awarded planning permission for the 49-storey, 155 metre tall Octagon residential building at the northern edge of Paradise that will bring 370 high quality new homes to the city centre.
Rob Groves, regional development director with Paradise development manager MEPC, said:
“Our plans for completing Phase Two of Paradise will create jobs, opportunities and promote skills for the people of Birmingham as well as helping Paradise realise its potential as a game changer for the city.
“Our ambition at Paradise has always been to create a truly mixed use development and in our proposals for completing the second phase we are bringing together plans for hotel and leisure use, exemplary commercial space and a large amount of new public spaces. Moving ahead with a number of new buildings right now is a massive vote of confidence in Birmingham and the regional economy’s recovery from the Covid pandemic.
“We have had an incredibly positive response to our first two buildings and the transformation of Chamberlain Square. We want to continue to build on this and give people who will live and work at Paradise and visit the estate, an even more enjoyable experience by opening up those connections across and through the city centre that we have always talked about in relation to the Paradise masterplan.
“Our consultation exercise is another opportunity to listen and learn from the public and show as many people as we can our plans.”
George Wilson from award winning FCBStudios said:
“Three Chamberlain Square will be a highly sustainable, low energy and low carbon building for Birmingham. It will be a landmark, distinctive and modern building rooted in its heritage setting alongside the Town Hall, while offering commercial space with excellent wellbeing and environmental credentials.
“To the east of the site is the Colmore Row and Environs Conservation Area, with a large number of high quality Grade I, II* and II listed buildings of local, regional and national importance. That context, along with the immediate relationship to the Town Hall, has pushed us to design a complementary building with its own identity that also meets the highest demands of discerning commercial occupiers.”
Ian Springford of hotel experts ISA Architecture & Design said:
“The centre of Birmingham requires more high quality hotel rooms and this proposal will help meet that demand while providing the city with another contemporary venue with dramatic views from the top floor sky bar.
“Its place on the south western corner of the Paradise site, opening onto Western Terrace and Ratcliff Square, also invites active ground floor uses which will be welcomed by locals as well as visitors.”
Andrew Haines from landscape architects, Grant Associates, said:
“The new, greener public squares and streets in the second phase of Paradise will help root the development into the wider city centre and offer up new connections north-south and east-west across Birmingham, whilst increasing opportunities for planting and enhanced local biodiversity.
“By mirroring some of the materials and finishes already used in Phase One of Paradise, we will be able to knit the first two phases together seamlessly while offering significant new and inclusive public spaces for people to enjoy.”
At almost 2 million square feet, Paradise is delivering up to ten new flagship buildings, offering offices, shops, bars, cafés, restaurants and hotel across 17 acres in the heart of the city, together with the Octagon residential building.
The Paradise redevelopment is being brought forward through Paradise Circus Limited Partnership (PCLP), a private-public joint venture with Birmingham City Council. The private sector funding is being managed by Federated Hermes International. MEPC is the development manager.
Paradise sits in the country’s largest city centre Enterprise Zone and has already benefited from investment by the Greater Birmingham and Solihull Local Enterprise Partnership (GBSLEP) in enabling and infrastructure works.