View from Paradise – December 2022
After the ups and downs of a two year global pandemic, 2022 at Paradise started as it meant to go on, with a busy schedule of events, stories and major announcements.
First off at the start of the year was the news that the Octagon residential tower – due to become the tallest building in Birmingham when it completes in 2025 and the tallest pure octagonal residential building in the world – would be forward funded by Singaporean real estate group City Developments. This was a great vote of confidence in Birmingham and the largest regional overseas real estate investment deal of the year.
That start underlined how the rest of the year continued with more deals all positively affecting the estate. This included new office occupiers like shared working provider Cubo and financial firm Cazenove Capital, both of which moved into Two Chamberlain Square.
In the same building, the new restaurant and wine bar Vinoteca also opened in the summer just as we all enjoyed the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee and this got us in the mood for what turned out to be one of the most eventful summers in the city’s history.
The Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games took the region by storm from 28 July until 8 August, a two week extravaganza of not just sport, but a golden opportunity for Paradise to show the world its dramatic transformation from concept to reality.
As home to one of the busiest pedestrian routes in the city, and one of its most important public squares, Chamberlain Square, Paradise is a custodian of Birmingham’s civic heart and was proud to play its part in highlighting the city to a global audience.
The Games included more than 5,000 athletes competing across 280 sporting events across 20 individual sports. More than 1.3 million people attended an event in person while a total global TV audience of more than 1 billion was said to have watched at least one event from Birmingham 2022.
By putting our best foot forward and dressing our public realm for events like the Queen’s Baton relay, the free Ping! table tennis feature in Chamberlain Square and various Commonwealth Games official branding – including the giant Perry graphic on our One Centenary Way building – the estate truly felt as if it was right at the heart of the action.
The welcome addition of the Brummie Bull, star of the opening ceremony, to nearby Centenary Square for much of the Games brought even more people into the centre of the city to soak up the summer weather and enjoy the spectacle of one of the world’s largest sporting tournaments right here on our doorstep.
As the summer ended we had further development highlights to talk about, including the announcement of global financial firm Goldman Sachs choosing One Centenary Way as the permanent home of its Birmingham office. It will occupy more than 100,000 sq ft of space and the move represents a major investment in the city and another vote of economic confidence.
Another significant occupier announcement came in November when F1 Arcade announced it would be zooming into Paradise and the city next year with a unique leisure offer for everyone who shares a passion for Formula 1.
As autumn has progressed, we have concentrated on further placemaking events such as activity around Halloween, Remembrance Day and now Christmas.
The lovely thing about spending time at Paradise is that it already feels as if we’ve been part of the city for a long time, which in a way is true of course. This has been an important part of the city for hundreds of years.
But are also still working hard to complete a game changing, job creating development with our plans for Phase Two well underway and more work currently taking place to bring forward our plans for Phase Three.
Our job is to ensure we deliver a place that gives the city a real sense of pride, restores connections across the city centre (while also creating new ones) and which will stand the test of time.
As we enter 2023 I hope we will have even more milestones to share with the people of Birmingham.