Birmingham's latest serviced apartment complex will open in the Jewellery Quarter in the new year.

Staycity, which already operates a venue in the Arcadian leisure complex near the Bullring, has confirmed its £17 million canalside project will launch on January 18 - eight months later than originally planned.

The Dublin-based company is regenerating the former science museum in Newhall Square which closed in 1997.

The complex was due to open in May but the project was delayed because of the administration of the main contractor GB Building Solutions and its parent company GB Group Holdings.

It then revealed last month it would open in mid-December only for this to put back again.

Staycity has now confirmed the new year opening and is holding a recruitment day on November 24 at the Birmingham Hippodrome to fill around 35 vacancies at the complex which will have 170 one- and two-bedroom serviced apartments.

The figure has been revised slightly from the original project which was due to have 172 units.

James Gwilliam, current general manager of Staycity's 79-unit complex at the Arcadian Centre, will also become general manager of the Newhall Square property.

The concept, often also called apart-hotels, offers people the chance to stay in an apartment with their own cooking and kitchen facilities but without taking on a full tenancy.

It is becoming a growing sector for Birmingham with other serviced apartments in the Rotunda and Adagio in Digbeth while Bloc hotel in the Jewellery Quarter is being extended to house 31 apart-hotel rooms and the former HSBC building Paradise Circus is also being redeveloped.