Advantage West Midlands has agreed to contribute £14million towards a commercial scheme set to transform the heart of West Bromwich.
The All Saints scheme – being delivered by developer Stoford – is a brownfield development on the north western edge of the town centre and is the first major commercial development of its kind within the town for more than 30 years.
The £75million All Saints development at the junction of the A41 Expressway and Cronehills Linkway is part of a wider regeneration of West Bromwich town centre which has already seen the construction of The Public and will also see significant wider regeneration with plans for the new Sandwell College, Eastern Gateway and the new Queens Square shopping centre all under consideration. The centrepiece of the scheme will be a six-storey 141,000 sq ft office building designed by Glenn Howells which has been pre-let to BT Liberata, the strategic outsourcing partner for Sandwell Metropolitan Borough Council (SMBC), and £9million of the AWM cash will go towards the development costs.
Tom Watson, MP for West Bromwich East, said: “It’s a very exciting time to see the first phase of development at All Saints get under way. West Bromwich has been waiting a long time to see this kind of investment and to be able to offer such a wealth of new job opportunities. In today’s current climate it is reassuring to be able to take our town forward and to know that West Bromwich now has a much brighter future as a town that is ready to reinvent and address what it has to offer its residents.”
The development of All Saints is supporting a number of key strategies including the Black Country Study – which aims to promote the urban renaissance of the Black Country; and the business plan for the area developed by RegenCo, which is the Urban Regeneration Company for West Bromwich – which has identified a number of key priority locations that will help ‘transform’ the town centre. Mick Laverty, chief executive at Advantage West Midlands, said: “We are delighted to be able to provide additional support to the West Bromwich Town Centre Programme. All Saints will not only strengthen the local economy by improving the office stock and through the creation of new jobs but it will undoubtedly add vitality into an area that really needs it, as well as working to complement other major mixed use proposals set out for other areas of the town.”
Karen Walker, chief executive at RegenCo, said: “The All Saints development is critical to the regeneration of West Bromwich. RegenCo is delighted that this significant AWM investment as part of our town centre programme, is now securing the delivery of major schemes.
“This is an important office development on a major scale. It is a top quality scheme, designed by Glenn Howells Architects and pre-let to BT Liberata. All Saints shows the future of West Bromwich.”
The project was given a further boost early last year when Stoford won a competition for £10million of interest-free financing for three years which it pledged to use for the delivery of the All Saints scheme.
The Birmingham-based group beat off competition from the likes of Barwood Developments Ltd, Birmingham Development Company – the company behind TheMailbox and TheCube – City & Country Group and The Duncan Group, to win the Midlands and East Anglia territory final of the Bank of Scotland Corporate £30million search for property entrepreneurs.
