Dapa is company of the year at Post Business Awards

Interior design firm Dapa was the big winner at the 2014 Birmingham Post Business Awards, crowned company of the year.

The Oldbury-based business won the small and medium enterprise award and was picked from ten other category winners by the judging panel as the overall company of the year.

Daniel Mumford, Brad Carman and Rob Burton founded the business in the latter's kitchen in 2009 since when it has gone from purchasing products on personal credit cards and using hire vans to employing 20 staff and competing against large London firms.

It has since launched two more companies - Dapa Atelier, which operates in the luxury end of the market, and Tuft Contracts, which provides designer flooring products and services to housebuilders.

Grand Hotel: New images reveal hidden façade

A new computer-generated image of the Grand Hotel was created to reflect new findings in the process of façade work at the architectural gem.

The new image has been created by Blink Image showing a course of sandstone bricks over four floors which was not known about before Hortons' Estate began work to restore the building to its former glory.

It also showed the front unit as a restaurant spilling out onto the street with an amended pavement on Colmore Row.

The image was created as work to market the restaurant and shops along the front of the historic building began.

£4.5m car auction proves classic stuff

More than £4.5 million worth of classic cars were sold at Europe's biggest enthusiasts' event at the NEC.

The Lancaster Insurance Classic Car Show saw 65,000 car-lovers head for the Midlands in an event hailed by organisers as "the best ever".

Many of the NEC's cavernous halls were turned over to the annual event, which encompassed everything classic car-related imaginable.

As always, one of the highpoints was the Silverstone Classics auction, which this year resulted in sales of more than £4.5 million.

Underground motorway mooted to ease congestion

A giant super-tunnel the length of Birmingham city centre is one radical plan being considered to combat a rising tide of traffic.

The underground motorway is one of a host of prospects put forward by Birmingham City Council to combat the full-to-bursting A38 and free up vital development space.

The re-routing of the road was a major part of the Birmingham Mobility Action Plan (BMAP) white paper, seen by the Post ahead of its unveiling in November, setting out the city council's 20-year vision for improving transport. One of the key aims is to better connect the Jewellery Quarter to the city centre but also to free-up a huge swathe of prime land to boost employment.

Rockspring buys NatWest Tower

One of the most long-awaited redevelopments in Birmingham could be set to kick into life after the NatWest Tower was sold.

Investment firm Rockspring has bought the Colmore Row building - which has been vacant for a decade - and is expected to oversee one of the city's most central office developments.

The 23-floor Brutalist building was designed by John Madin and completed in 1976 and is one of the most eagerly-awaited schemes.

Inside Concord House as show apartments launch

A £10 million city centre redevelopment labelled dreadful, hideous and a monstrosity by a city councillor unveiled a brace of show apartments.

The former Debenhams warehouse in Holloway Head, known as Concord House, is undergoing a wholesale renovation by Warwickshire property group Elevate which will take it from five to seven storeys once penthouse apartments are added.

The firm officially launched two show apartments which it hoped would counter the strong views expressed by council planning committee member Barry Henley who previously said that the project would be a contender for the notorious Carbuncle Cup.

Green light for University of Birmingham regen

The next phase of the University of Birmingham's £300 million regeneration was given the green light.

Planning officers at Birmingham City Council recommended that members approve the construction of a 178-bedroom halls of residence and sports pavilion next to the Grange Road Gate entrance of its campus in Edgbaston.

This phase forms part of the wider transformation of the university grounds which includes a new student services hub, Chamberlain Halls and green park while work is under way on construction of a new library and £55 million sports centre with the city's only 50-metre pool.

New Library of Birmingham statue

Two sisters and their sons are joining the likes of Queen Victoria, Matthew Boulton and Tony Hancock in being immortalised by a statue in Birmingham.

A Real Birmingham Family, a life-sized bronze sculpture featuring sisters Roma and Emma Jones, with sons Kyan and Shaye, was unveiled.

The statue was created by Turner Prize-winning artist Gillian Wearing and came after the subjects were chosen out of 372 families who applied.

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Review of 2014: October