Backed by a £500M equity injection, SAMA seeks to redevelop an underutilised and largely empty office block, a site that was once home to Perry & Co., where pens, chains, and bicycles were all produced and sold worldwide.

Giving a respectful nod to its proud history through its name, Perryian Works proposes two towers of 41 & 48-storeys (161.5m), introducing 1,968 studio bed spaces (20-33 sqm).

With its facade comprising of monolithic aluminium panels, Perryian Works' accommodation would be served by a single central core, two fire-compliant staircases and four lifts. 

Complementing the beds would be a 134 sqm café, 5,281 sqm of student amenities, an initial 200 cycles, and eight small rooftop gardens.

Although amenities would largely be concentrated across the lower levels, there would be break levels introduced at floors 13, 27 & 41 across both towers.

Facilities include a mixture of lounges and study spaces, function rooms, a gym and studio, a leisure pool, a sauna, and a steam room.

The roofs of both towers each propose four small external garden spaces, further complemented by internal amenities and plant space.

To get to this point, the proposal has been through several pre-application iterations, at one point topping 65 storeys, but was reduced because of height requirements and restrictions imposed by the CAA.

The application is now in the public domain and can be viewed and commented on here.

Perryian Works, images from SAMA Investments, node, and Stride Treglown.

SMITH'S GARDEN: DEVELOPMENT MAP

Images from Stephen Giles

Smith's Garden CGIs: Goodstone Living.

Images from Stephen Giles. View the map of the site (with more info!) here.

SMITH'S GARDEN: DEVELOPMENT MAP

Images from Stephen Giles

Smith's Garden CGIs: Goodstone Living; drone image: Stephen Giles.

Photos by Stephen Giles; CGIs from Broadway Malyan/ Gleeds/ Salhia.

For more on Beorma, follow our development map.

Affinity Living will introduce 266 one- and two-bed homes in a series of linked buildings of six to 23 storeys, one that also reactivates the canalside to cater to the demands of the Birmingham rental market.

The site will offer large living spaces with new hybrid ways of living and working for young professionals, complete with floor-to-ceiling glazing and fully integrated high-spec kitchens, in addition to a multitude of amenities.

The main amenity space will feature a selection of lounges and workspaces with floor-to-ceiling glazing looking out onto the site's new waterfront garden courtyard.

Wrapping around the site frontage, now taking shape, will be a gymnasium, complemented by an intimate roof terrace.

Drone photography from Stephen Giles; CGIs from Select Property Group.

GNM Developments is leading the project that will see the site redeveloped and renewed, leading to Gather & Soul becoming the UK's first energy-positive building, demonstrating a clear commitment to environmental sustainability.

The site's former factory and stable buildings will be demolished and replaced with a viable new G+6 and G+14 storey building with Building Integrated Photovoltaic (“BIPV”) facades, full street-level glazing, and new pedestrian access routes.

Toll House, a Gas Street heritage asset (below), will be retained and converted to accommodate four apartments.

Fostering a close-knit community, Gather & Soul will feature 820 sqm of internal amenities that'll include communal kitchens, lounges, dining, workspaces, a gym, games, and cinema rooms, along with spaces for 100 cycles.

560 sqm of external space will also be available to residents in the form of quaint green terraced gardens on the roofs of each building.

Gather & Soul, images from Broadway Malyan & Google Earth.

You can view the development on our map. Also, feel free to follow us on our socials: X & Instagram.

The Community Village is an eco-friendly community of 83 homes with 50% affordability in a design exemplified by its stepped features, providing both private and communal terraces for lush vegetation to flourish throughout the structure.

Golden Bricks Estate Ltd. today gained consent to redevelop the site with a new six-storey building, comprising 26 one-, 41 two-, and 16 three-bedroom apartments.

Designed by Venturi Architects, The Community Village will be complemented by a range of shared and private spaces, including terraces, courtyards, a vegetable garden at level 1, terraces at 2–5, and a rooftop communal terrace for all.

There will also be around 100 bicycle spaces in addition to a basement for 58 vehicle spaces.

The Community Village was unaminously approved by 11 votes to zero, subject to a S106 legal agreement to secure affordable housing provisions.

The Community Village, images from Venturi Architects.

You can view the development on our map. Also, feel free to follow us on our socials: X & Instagram.

The vacant former Birmingham wholesale markets will now be crafted into a buzzing new residential, leisure, and entertainment district.

Lendlease’s £1.9bn hybrid scheme, which includes full detailed elements alongside outline future plans, is being worked on in collaboration with Birmingham City Council.

The 42-acre site will see 3,500 new homes, public squares and green spaces, new transit routes, c. 1M SF of offices with restaurants, a music venue, an art gallery, a hotel, artists’ spaces, and a primary school/creche.

Plans were due to be approved last month, but the application was deferred after campaigners and councillors critiqued the size of the scheme’s open spaces.

Lendlease has since committed to increasing the minimum size of a future Smithfield Park (below) by 23% to 0.8 hectares. However, this is still below the council’s guidelines for new resi schemes, which state that 2 hectares of open space should be provided for every 1,000 residents.

A spokesperson for Lendlease said: “The council’s policy for green space cannot be met in this location, and that’s also been the case with other major schemes coming forward in the heart of Birmingham. We’ve aligned with national guidance that prioritises the most efficient use of brownfield land in urban locations. Our revised plans include a 23% increase in the minimum area for Smithfield Park.”

Manor Square, Smithfield’s main public space, remains the same, with chiefs deciding it to be sufficient to host large-scale events of up to 6,900–7000 people.

PHASE ONE

A new market will be introduced to the north of the site and will be split into two buildings: Indoor market; Dining Hall; and the Open and Rag Market.

In front of the market will be Manor Square, a public square set to sit above the buried remains of the de Birmingham family manor house and moat.

It will be celebrated as “the birthplace of the city" and will be able to host large-scale events for up to 7,000 people.

A new commercial office building (G+11 floors) with a square-facing terrace and street-level frontages.

An Energy Centre will be introduced to Dean Street, allowing for easy connection to the Birmingham District Energy Circuit (BDEC), a city-wide district heating strategy.



'Smithfield Gardens' will become the site’s first neighbourhood, accommodating 429 (1-3 bed) homes over builds of seven to 15 storeys, with a garden, community room, lounges, play areas, and ten flexible commercial units.

It will front onto Central Boulevard, a major transport spine that will open the entire site - Meriden Street to Sherlock Street - and connect surrounding future neighbourhoods.

All of this will be complemented by 16,491-sqm of new public realm, tying together Southside, Digbeth, and the city centre at the earliest opportunity.

With these hybrid full & outline plans now approved, a legal agreement will now need to be agreed to secure the following:

• 10.87% on-site affordable housing across the masterplan, rising to a potential 20% should grant funding be secured
• An intermittent viability review throughout the delivery of the development
• Securing the architect of individual plots through to completion of that plot
• Provision for a primary school (anticipated to be 2 Forms of Entry)
• Public spaces: Allow for the inspection of public spaces by the council for agreement & for spaces to be maintained as publicly accessible

Outline consent was also granted for the remaining zones, including Smithfield Park, with the wider site earmarked for more residential, workspaces, community hubs, a library, and a primary school. Watch our socials and map for more news!

Birmingham Smithfield, images from Lendlease and Haworth Tompkins, dRMM, Intervention Architecture, Minesh Patel Architects and RCKa.

Photography by Daniel Sturley.

Photography by Stephen Giles.

Photography by Elliott Brown.

Photography by Jack Babington.

And how it'll look when completed: image from Paradise Birmingham.

A significant retrofit to a heritage gem along with a 14-storey student infill building are planned at 34 Horse Fair.

The White Lion is a development from Scarlet's (Properties) Ltd. and has been designed by Glancy Nicholls Architects. The team seeks to introduce 182 ensuite student studio bedspaces into the emerging cluster.

A 14-storey infill block would be built behind The White Lion Public House, a Grade II-listed late-19th-century building that will be retained and retrofitted into the development.

The rejuvenated building will offer student amenities and ancillary staff facilities, including a welcoming new entrance and reception and a basement cinema room.

Attached to the building's rear, which would see modern additions removed to facilitate it, would be a 14-storey red brick building containing ground-floor amenities, 86 cycles, and studio bedrooms (14 per floor).

Its rooftop would accommodate air-source heat pumps, a generator, solar panels, and lift overruns.

LUNA Students, part of Torsion Developments, is on board to operate the building, with amenities set to feature a range of lounges, laundry & post rooms, staff showers, offices, and an external courtyard.

The application can be viewed and commented on here. The application number is: 2024/02669/PA.

The White Lion, images from Glancy Nicholls Architects.

You can view the development on our map. Also, feel free to follow us on our socials: X & Instagram.

A significant retrofit and extension are planned for the 1968-built Maple House at 150 Corporation Street.

Set within a conservation area, plans will introduce 383 ensuite student studios and clusters to the site, while the building’s structure will be reused and extended upwards.

A five-storey increase, taking Maple House up to 10 storeys tall, will see the building incorporate a green roof and PV panels, backed up by a high-quality new modern facade.

The facade will be made up of distinctive terracotta fins with bronze aluminium and glazing.

A reconfigured ground floor will see Tesco retained & new frontages introduced, including study areas, lounges, an eating area, a games room, and a gymnasium.

The building will ultimately introduce 207 ensuite studios & 176 six-, seven-, & 10-bed clusters, along with 164 bicycle spaces within two-tier cycle racks and a retained basement car park.

These plans are being brought forward by 'Linden Hill - Capital Assets - SPW Ltd' following an extensive pre-application process, with designs from ECE Westworks.

Maple House, images from ECE Westworks and Google Street Maps.

You can view the development on our map. Also, feel free to follow us on our socials: X & Instagram.

October 2021:

Drone photography by Stephen Giles. CGIs below are from Cortland.com

Phase II of the project has consent for an eight storey, 3* budget hotel facing onto Grosvenor Street West and is dependent on a pre-let hotel occupier. Watch this space!

Photos by Stephen Giles.

Photos by Daniel Sturley.

CGIs from Broadway Malyan/ Gleeds/ Salhia.

For more on Beorma, follow our development map.

Developed by 10M Group and Corstorphine & Wright, the team also behind the recently-completed Apex Lofts (next door) and Fountain Lofts (Alcester Street), also in Digbeth, Sapphire Court will introduce 166 more homes to an area undergoing quite the resurgance.

H-shaped in footprint, a six- to eight-storey will be built, introducing one- & two-bed apartments and duplexes, seventeen affordable units and 166 bicycle spaces.

Warwick Street and Bradford Street will both benefit from new entrances to their respective streets, with residents also set to benefit from two large communal gardens.

All artists impressions are the property of Corstorphine + Wright Architects.

Rising to 30 storeys, the 540-bed managed development is now making its presence known on the skyline.

The development sits on the eastern periphery of the Grade B locally listed Christadelphian Hall and the Grade II-listed Birmingham Hebrew Congregation (Singers Hill Synagogue) to the northwest.

The site will introduce two interlinked BREEAM 'Excellent' buildings of 10 & 30 storeys (approximately 92m, inc. ground floor and roof level), bringing an eclectic array of managed studios aimed at the top end of the student market.

Students will soon benefit from a concierge, dining rooms, a gym, social hub, games area, study spaces, an outdoor terrace, and spaces for 254 bicycles.

Harmonising the architectural heritage of the city and adding to a street in the process of being repaired, the development will be made up of red brick and glass, creating depth, texture, and visual interest on what is a primary route into the city.

Construction images from Stephen Giles & Daniel Sturley. CGIs from Urban Innovations. View the site map HERE.

Images from Stephen Giles. View the map of the site (with more info!) here.

The development will deliver a new sustainable neighbourhood centred around a renaturalised River Rea, which runs through the middle of the site, but is not currently accessible to the public.

Dandara will invest in landscaping the river, creating desirable new public spaces along its banks and laying the foundations for a dynamic new mixed-use destination a short walk from the city centre.

This first phase (below) of the development will spearhead the delivery of the Council’s Rea Valley Urban Quarter regeneration with successive phases delivering further homes, workspaces, commercial space and new active travel routes.

Dandara Living is one of the UK’s leading built-to-Rent Developers with an already strong track record of delivery in Birmingham City Centre at its sites at Aston Place and Unity & Armouries.

Rachel Allwood, Planning Director at Dandara Living, said:

“We are delighted that Birmingham City Council’s Planning Committee has today approved our
application to deliver a new neighbourhood at Warner's Fields.

The redevelopment will deliver much-needed new homes to meet Birmingham’s housing need and drive the ecological and environmental transformation of this part of the city by renaturalising the River Rea and delivering significant net biodiversity gain.

We are grateful to the Officers at BCC who recognised the necessity of this phasing and recommended the scheme for approval and to the Committee Members who approved it.”

Warner Fields, images from Dandara Living/ Howells.

THE SITE: Interactive Map

Warner Fields is a unique, long-term riverside neighbourhood set to deliver 1,351 new homes across ten new blocks of four to 15 storeys.

Over 50% will be devoted to new green and pedestrian space, with the site's centrepiece being the River Rea, which will be broken out of its culvert and re-naturalised across both banks, with a new bridge connecting Charles Henry St. with Rea Street South.

Phases 1-4 (full detailed), overlapping with the river works, will introduce 1,056 BTR one- to three-bedroom apartments (597 one, 420 two & 39 three-beds) and over 30K SF of flexible floorspace, with commercial/flexible uses across the entirety of the ground floor.

Phase 5 (outline) could see a further c. 295 homes and over 46K SF of flexible floorspace.

When complete, Warner Fields will benefit from sustainable drainage systems, pocket parks, green and brown roofs, courtyards, roof terraces, and new cycleways (1,164 cycle spaces) and footways.

No affordable housing will be available in light of the viability issues associated with the extensive public realm and works to the River Rea.

Warner Fields, images from Howells.

SMITH'S GARDEN: DEVELOPMENT MAP

Smith's Garden CGIs: Goodstone Living; drone image: Stephen Giles.

Acquired in 2021, the underutilised office site is moving forward with reimagined plans for two new towers of around 40 and 50 storeys, containing purpose-built student studio accommodation.

Plans would see the site redeveloped and opened up, with a dynamic variety of public commercial and leisure spaces introduced at street level.

A plethora of amenities would be on offer, including two rooftop terraces for students, along with an 'attractive new public realm and pedestrian link', a series of courtyards and seating areas, green spaces, tree planting, and potential water features. 

The landmark development would go some way toward supporting the growth and delivery of Birmingham Innovation Quarter, which forms part of the West Midlands Investment Zone.

The site was once home to Perry & Co., where pens, chains, and bicycles were all produced and sold worldwide.

A public consultation will take place tomorrow (May 9) at Aston Conferences, Meeting Room 127, between 10am and 4pm. Can’t make it?.

The website, https://www.perryianworks.co.uk/, is now live and open to feedback.

Perryian Works, images from SAMA Investments.

Kings Crescent Homes have carefully developed the site (external) with six interconnected new builds, each one designed with its own character while respecting the historic nature of Legge Lane and the Jewellery Quarter Conservation Area.

The site had remained unused since it ceased industrial use in the 1970s, with only dilapidated structures remaining on site, including the 19th-century and Grade II listed Wellington Works.

Wellington Works, unfortunately, had to be demolished owing to a partial collapse leading up to construction.

However, the historic building has since been reconstructed using mostly salvaged bricks from its demolition, with the building following the same form as its original, with the building now back to sitting loud and proud facing onto Legge Lane.

Within the site, residents will benefit from five intimate courtyard gardens, with many also benefiting from balconies and private terraces.

Drone photography from Stephen Giles; CGIs from King Crescent Homes.

GHL (Selly Oak) Ltd, a collaboration between Apsley House Capital and Galliard Homes, snapped up the brownfield site last year, adding to its Birmingham-focused portfolio.

Designed by Corstorphine + Wright, two builds of four and six storeys will be introduced, bringing together 836 student beds - 364 en-suite clusters, and 472 studios - as well as new retail and commercial space.

This will see a reactivated Bristol Street, a new medical facility for the local community, and, boosting connectivity, four public amenity areas with a public realm and plaza space, a retained Selly Oak tree, and a centralised link street.

Students living here will benefit from a gymnasium, cinema, study room, wellness areas, and lounges, with small, private courtyards and roof terraces.

There will be 34 car parking spaces for the medical centre, with three loading bays, four disabled student bays, and 472 cycles spread across the site.

All images are the property of The Galliard Apsley Partnership and Corstorphine & Wright.

PROJECT TEAM (SEE OUR MAP OF THE SITE HERE:

DEVELOPER: The Galliard Apsley Partnership
ARCHITECTS: Corstorphine & Wright, Macgregor Smith
CIVIL & STRUCTURAL ENGINEER: Simpson TWS
M&E: D.W Pointer
GI-GEO TECH: GB Card
ECOLOGY: Middlemarch
AIR QUALITY: Simon Grubb
DAYLIGHT, SUNLIGHT: Devla Parman Redler
TRANSPORT: mode
ENERGY: Ana Fuente-Barco, Colliers
FIRE ENGINEER: Ashton Fire
ACOUSTICS: David Sutton
ARBORICULTURE: Arborclimb
PLANNING CONSULTANT: Knight Frank
PR COMMUNICATIONS: Holland Lloyd
PLANNING APPLICATION NUMBER:
2023/08290/PA* (Full Planning)

Clarion Housing Group, the UK’s largest affordable housing provider, through their subsidiary Latimer, now has consent to introduce 481 homes across two interlinked buildings of 10 and 34 storeys (107.8m) on the former Safestore plot.

Plans also include five commercial units on High Street, a new public realm (again on High Street), and a whopping 55% affordable housing.

This will be achieved via a Homes England grant, with 141 earmarked for social rent and 127 for shared ownership.

In addition, residents will benefit from a 31st-floor roof terrace, a landscaped woodland courtyard, workspaces, a parcel room, and 277 cycle spaces.

Some conditions arising from approval include the finalising of a S106 legal agreement, with Birmingham Airport also recommending a construction management strategy, a bird hazard management plan, a permanent obstacle lighting scheme, and a CAA crane notification condition.

These pre-commencement conditions, and more, will need to be approved before the project gets underway.

Clarion has already transacted on a portion of the land and is committed to expanding its current portfolio of over 2,500 affordable homes in the city.

You can view the development on our map. Also, feel free to follow us on our socials: X & Instagram.

We got our drone up over the weekend to show the fantastic progress on site at Boulevard on Bristol Street.​

The flagship development from INVESTIN will introduce 278 city-centre one- and two-bedroom apartments to the area across builds of up to 15 storeys.

With SFS (Steel Framing Systems) underway, internals set to start in June, and a show apartment due soon, residents living here will have a wide-range of amenities to feast on.

There will be a gymnasium and cinema space, spacious lounges and workspaces, a podium courtyard, and a roof terrace, with Boulevard setting the standard for the rental sector in this part of the city.

VIRTUAL REALITY TOUR LINK HERE.

Boulevard, drone images from Stephen Giles; CGIs from Investin, Wake Morley Architects & Connells.

View the site on our development map HERE.