Brum's Celtic tiger

Green light given for a £150m makeover of the neglected Irish Quarter

Irish developer The Naus Group has been given the green light to commence a £150m development in Digbeth, Birmingham.

City planners gave the mixed use scheme, called Connaught Square, the thumbs up shortly before the holiday season.
The multi-million scheme will occupy a 4.544 acre site fronting High Street Deritend and is set to transform the city’s run-down Irish Quarter.

Connaught Square will comprise 658 new apartments, a 180 bed hotel incorporating 36 serviced apartments, shops, offices, bars, restaurants, more than 1,000 underground car parking spaces, two new public squares and public amenity space. Around 800 jobs are expected to be created.

Key features will be a four star hotel with a sky bar and restaurant offering panoramic views of the city; a spa facility and a new Irish centre, replacing the existing premises on High Street Deritend. A pedestrian boulevard will be carved through the centre of the development, providing access to two new public squares, one of which straddles the River Rea.

The site is next to Birmingham’s coach station, which is also currently undergoing a £15m re-vamp. In addition, it is bounded by High Street Deritend, Rea Street, Bradford Street, and Birchall/Chapel House Streets.

Naus plans to build six individually designed contemporary buildings, of between four and seven storeys, rising to ten storeys to house the hotel and sky bar. The buildings will make reference to the industrial heritage of the area and more specifically the heavy metal processing which occurred in the district, through the use of materials representing six distinct processes in metal working (pressed, sheet, raised, ribbed, punched and perforated).

Most of the buildings at the site have now been demolished in preparation for imminent development. The Grade II listed White Swan public house is adjacent to the site and will be sympathetically integrated into the scheme. The scheme is Naus’ first major mixed-use venture in the UK. The developer has a track record in residential development in Ireland spanning 30 years, and within the last five years has branched out into mixed-use development. Key schemes include the Ä200m (£143m) Ashbourne town centre and the Ä150m (£107m) Barrow Track shopping centre and apartment complex in Carlow. Naus is also developing 142 lakeside apartments at its Chesterfield development in Blackrock, Dublin, where prices start at Ä1m (£715,000).

Andy Tollett, Naus UK’s chief executive, believes Connaught Square will kick-start the next phase of Digbeth’s regeneration.

He said: “High Street Deritend is one of the principal arteries into and out of the city. At present, it is nothing but a line of run-down buildings, despite being just 400m from the iconic Selfridges building. This is not much of a welcome mat for those entering Birmingham from the airport.

“Our aim is to create a destination site to the east of the city, in much the same way that Brindleyplace has created a destination site to the west. Like Brindleyplace, Connaught Square will have the benefit of scale, presence, accessibility - and a waterfront.”

Naus anticipates that building work will start in mid 2008, with the hotel block on the corner of Rea Street and High Street Deritend the first to come out of the ground. The hotel will be ready for occupation by the end of 2009, with the scheme as a whole complete by 2011.

The Birmingham office of Savills has been appointed to market the new apartments and offices; Cardiff firm EJ Hales will handle the retail/leisure space.

Planning adviser to Naus is Birmingham-based CSJ Brooke-Smith; architects are Leicester-based RG&P.

Connaught Square: Schedule of accommodation
- 658 residential units, including 36 serviced apartments (44 single living units; 334 one bed; 279 two bed and one three bed)
- 16,975sq ft retail (A1)
- 31,646sq ft office (A2/B1) space at ground level
- 30,161sq ft office space (B1) at upper level
- 26,953sq ft (A3/A4) and (A5) retail floor space
- 121,988sq ft hotel (C1) accommodation, including 25,288sq ft of serviced residential floor space
- 9,515sq ft spa complex
- 35,056sq ft of new public amenity space, including two new public squares
- 17,050sq ft of community facilities (D2) in the form of a rebuilt Irish Centre
- 1013 car parking spaces