One Centenary Way offers the ‘complete package.’
By Charlie Toogood, Avison Young, and Will Ventham, CBRE
One Centenary Way is a building that is truly a new landmark for Birmingham.
This moniker gets bandied around all too often, but in this case it is entirely warranted.
The unique steel exoskeleton design due to its location directly above the A38 Queensway tunnel and its highly sustainability credentials make it one of the few buildings in the city that offers occupiers the whole package of location, design and quality.
Its’ design (low embodied carbon steel exoskeleton), location (overlooking Centenary Square) and pedigree (highly sustainable as well as highly desirable) are all to its advantage and creates important considerations for businesses looking for new space.
As more diverse sectors start looking to the city centre for space to flourish – be it creative industries, the life sciences or others – the existing ‘flight to quality’ movement will be enabled by buildings like this one which can offer a solution to that quintessential need for quality.
The fact many other companies have already moved to the city centre from out of town locations, such as Arup, who are decamping from Blythe Valley to return to the heart of the city after a thirty year absence. By taking space in a building they helped design, demonstrates the appeal of an increasingly re-energised city centre.
The investment made across the city is well and truly bearing fruit, while the narrative around the growth of the city centre and its quantum leap in improved design of space and accessibility means large inward investment moves to the centre of Birmingham – HSBC, BT, Deutsche Bank, Goldman Sachs – have become a reality over the past ten years, helping to create and sustain thousands of jobs.
The city’s connectivity – with more Metro lines and stops bringing more people within a short and sustainable commute of the centre – and the arrival of HS2 this decade underlines this appeal.
What destinations like Paradise can offer is short connections to the growing number of public transport nodes. And these are not just about rail or tram networks, but also improved cycle and pedestrian access which the city is rightly investing in.
A connected, safe and pleasant network of public routes and squares across the centre of Birmingham is making it a more liveable place as well as a place to work, with thousands of new residential apartments coming online every year.
The opportunity to deliver a permanent home for Goldman Sachs, the global banking giant at One Centenary Way, demonstrates the long term appeal of the Paradise estate.
As it moves through its Phase Two programme and looks towards Phase Three, Paradise will remain the city’s foremost, class leading office and independent leisure destination for both today and tomorrow.