Looking forward
By Ross Fittall, Commercial Director at Paradise Birmingham developer, MEPC
Looking ahead is always an inexact science at best, but for Paradise we’re hugely excited about the year before us and what it means for us as Birmingham’s premier new commercial destination.
As a whole new piece of the city, we’re in the middle of one of the largest ever redevelopments of the city’s civic heart, with major leisure and office occupiers already on board, and with the potential for many more to follow.
New public realm, transport improvements and pedestrian routes have been carefully and thoughtfully designed to maximise the potential of the Paradise site and make a significant impact on the city.
But Paradise is about much more than just new public space, as important as that is. It is also about new jobs and opportunities and attracting new employers to Birmingham.
With the potential to create 10,000 new jobs, Paradise has already had a major impact on the city with occupiers like PwC, Atkins and Goldman Sachs creating new roles as part of their moves to our new commercial buildings like One Chamberlain Square, Two Chamberlain Square and One Centenary Way.
With our next buildings well underway in the shape of Octagon and Three Chamberlain Square, we are gearing up to bring even more job-creating landmarks in the next few years.
With our world-record 155 metre tall Octagon residential tower, for example, featuring 370 outstanding new homes for the city, completing in 2025, our next office building will also come on stream in 2025, adding a further 189,000 sq ft of commercial space to the estate.
Three Chamberlain Square will also be a highly sustainable new building, bringing the greenest ever workspaces to Birmingham.
The building has already picked up a number of sustainability, wellbeing and wellness accolades, including a much sought-after NABERS 5 Star recognition, along with a BREEAM Outstanding rating.
These industry awards are important because they tell us we’re on the right track towards a net zero carbon future and are making the right choices about the way we design, spec and construct our buildings.
But we want to keep going further and will keep on pushing for the very best development we can possibly deliver. As we move through 2024, we hope to start bringing forward the very special plans for the third and final phase of Paradise.
This will feature more highly sustainable commercial buildings as well as outstanding new public realm for the city linking up with the existing public realm, creating both a commercial as well as public space that knits itself and the city’s crucial north-south as well as east-west pedestrian routes together even more. Crucially, this third phase will feel greener and even more sustainable than what we have already delivered.
Our network of seven new pieces of public realm makes us one of the most important places in Birmingham for connectivity and transport links, as well as cultural, leisure, commercial and residential spaces.
Achieving this to the best of our ability is the motivating factor in all we do and all we strive for: to be an impactful, special new piece of Birmingham its citizens will be proud of for years to come.