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It will be financed through a special purpose vehicle, which will secure the funding for the first building, iCentrumTM. This will end a four year drought of no purely speculative office development in Birmingham. Subsequent buildings are likely to be built-out on a pre-let basis.
iCentrumTM has an estimated construction cost of £7.5 million and will take 12 months to build.
The Science Park’s flagship Faraday Wharf building will be upgraded and linked to iCentrumTM via a first floor bridge. A detailed planning application for the 30,000 sq ft iCentrumTM building, together with an outline application for the rest of the 120,000 sq ft Digital Plaza development will be submitted later this summer. Subject to planning approval, work will start on site before the end of 2012.
Birmingham Science Park, wholly owned by Birmingham City Council, is the gateway to the Eastside learning and knowledge quarter. The Digital Plaza site is accessed off Holt Street/Enterprise Way and A38 Aston Expressway.
The Science Park’s vacant development plot has been identified within the Greater Birmingham and Solihull LEP’s Enterprise Zone proposals, which covers 26 sites within the Big City Plan area. The Digital Plaza will be one of the first Enterprise Zone developments to get underway and enable its future occupiers to benefit from Business Rates relief.
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