Arena Central will become the first speculatively developed new office building in the city since before the recession after it was given the green light.

Birmingham City Council has granted detailed planning consent for the key development fronting onto Broad Street and close to the Paradise Circus project.

Opposite Centenary Square, One Arena Central will now become the first speculatively-developed office building in Birmingham city centre since before 2008.

It will provide 140,000 sq ft of accommodation across eight floors including 135,000 sq ft of grade A office space, with typical floorplates of 21,000 sq ft.

The building will also offer 5,000 sq ft of retail units on the ground floor and 68 car parking spaces in a secure basement environment.

Jonathan Wallis, from Arena Central Developments (ACD), said: "The development of One Arena Central is the first step towards the realisation of our vision for a truly mixed-use, office-led destination in the heart of the city centre.

"In Arena Central, we are looking to provide a high-quality location that will continue to build on Birmingham’s burgeoning reputation as an attractive destination for blue chip occupiers."

One Arena Central is the first step in the masterplan for the 9.2 acre mixed-use site, which is being delivered by ACD. 

Outline planning permission is already in place for 2.3 million sq ft of mixed-use space, including 860,000 sq ft of grade A office accommodation, over 200,000 sq ft of residential units, 2,500 car parking spaces and more than 1.2 million sq ft of retail and leisure units.

Designed by renowned architect Ken Shuttleworth's practice, Make, One Arena Central features a curved façade with a contemporary chequerboard motif, designed to encourage pedestrian traffic onto the site and forming an extension to Broad Street.

The building will also have 2,500 sq ft of open balconies on the top floor, providing views across Centenary Square and back towards The Mailbox and Cube.

Martin Guest, from property consultancy CBRE which is joint agency on the scheme with GVA, said: "The recent absorption of 100,000 sq ft of stock at Two Snowhill is only exacerbating the current dearth of high quality stock in the city.

"The city needs deliverable opportunities such as this in order to meet the rising demand for high quality office stock from blue chip corporate occupiers such as Deutsche Bank."

A joint venture between Miller Developments and Bridgehouse Capital, Arena Central is framed by Broad Street, Holliday Street, Bridge Street and Suffolk Street Queensway and lies at the heart of Birmingham's City Centre Enterprise Zone, benefitting from simplified planning and reduced business rates as well as forming a significant part of the city's vision for regeneration, as laid out in the Big City Plan.

Councillor Tahir Ali, cabinet member for development, transport and the economy, at Birmingham City Council, said: "Birmingham is attracting considerable interest from a range of high quality international occupiers, keen to relocate or expand their businesses.

"Office-led developments such as Arena Central will go a long way to securing further investments of this kind and continue to raise the standard of office accommodation in the city, as well as creating job opportunities."

Arena Central is currently home to a number of redundant buildings including the former Carlton Television studios, and a leisure club, with a multi-storey car park having already been demolished.

Clearance work on the site is already underway with further demolition of the remaining buildings due to commence shortly and work on One Arena Central and the new public realm set to start in early 2015.

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