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Birmingham Post
Birmingham Post
Business
Tamlyn Jones

New plans for 29-storey student apartment tower in Birmingham

CGI of plans to build 540 student bedrooms in Gough Street, Birmingham (Urban Innovations)

The former home of Eddie's Rock Club in Birmingham city centre could be housing a new student apartment development reaching up to 29 storeys.

The newly revealed plans would see a brownfield plot near the Mailbox shopping complex regenerated to contain 540 studios across two adjoining buildings, the smaller of which would have ten storeys.

Designed by Belfast-based Urban Innovations, it would also have facilities for residents including a roof terrace on the 29th floor, gym, social hub, 24-hour concierge, games area and bookable private dining rooms.

There will be free bike hire along with 204 spaces to store bicycles but no car parking. The half-acre application site sits at the corner of Gough Street and Suffolk Street Queensway.

It is estimated that around 460 full-time equivalent jobs will be created on site during construction with a further 15 through site management and other roles, according to a report prepared by planning consultancy Carter Jonas.

A community infrastructure levy of around £1.4 million has also been included in the newly submitted planning application to be spent on local projects.

Construction is set to commence on site in November and complete in 2025, subject to consent.

The application site was most recently occupied by a former print works and it neighbours a building used as a place of worship by the Universal Church of the Kingdom of God.

Northern Irish developer and investor MRP won consent for a 330-bedroom hotel there in 2019 via a special vehicle called ES Suffolk Birmingham but has since gone back to the drawing board and returned with this new scheme.

A previous project by a different developer to build 73 apartments was given the green light at the site in 2015 but work never started and the former Birmingham United Services Club, which housed Eddie's Rock Club until 2014, was subsequently demolished.

The proposed new student tower would be run by specialist operator Vita Student, which opened accommodation on the former BBC Pebble Mill site in Edgbaston in 2019, and which has already worked with MRP on its 'Cannon Park' project in Warwick due to open later this year.

MRP also built the Onyx scheme of 1,025 student bedrooms at Lancaster Circus island in Birmingham city centre.

Vita's chief commercial officer Mark Oakes said: "Vita Group already has an established relationship with MRP and we are looking forward to working with them again on this site in Birmingham.

"Gough Street will provide the perfect opportunity to add to the vibrant community of students currently living near the Chinese Quarter while helping alleviate some of the strain on the city brought by an increased student population.

"The plans aim to create best-in-class student accommodation with outstanding amenities and will help to attract students from not only in the UK but from across the world to Birmingham due to the increased accessibility of higher standards of student residences."

MRP's development director Graham Mitchell added: "Vita Group has an outstanding reputation for creating best-in-class student residences and we are looking forward to working with it again on this landmark development that will help further develop the vibrant student community in Birmingham.

"We look forward to continuing our collaborative partnership with this great city through this latest Vita project."

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