The UK’s largest independent commercial property consultant and Birmingham’s leading property advisor, GVA, has been appointed to advise on Birmingham City University’s estates strategy in relation to vacating its City North Campus, in Perry Barr.
Featuring a number of buildings totalling 51,500 sq m – including the Student Union, Business School and Faculty of Education, Law and Social Sciences – the current nine hectare Perry Barr campus is utilised by some 8,500 students and around 900 staff.
GVA’s appointment is critical in fulfilling the University’s strategy of transferring existing learning facilities in Perry Barr to a new purpose-built city centre campus in Birmingham’s burgeoning Eastside area.
GVA’s remit also includes providing consultancy services on the acquisition of additional space for the University’s administration functions, ensuring that they remain closely aligned.
Carl Potter, senior director, is leading GVA’s team. He said: “GVA is a truly multidisciplinary consultant, able to provide our clients with a range of property solutions, depending on their needs. The ability to provide a highly skilled and experienced team with a blend of planning and development experience is a key element of the offering to assist Birmingham City University.
“This is a significant project both in terms of physical scale and importance to the city as a whole, and we are extremely pleased to be able to provide advice both on the disposal of the University’s physical assets and wider consultancy services.”
GVA was appointed following a multidisciplinary pitch that included the company’s National Markets and Planning teams.
Graham Rhodes, director of Estates at BCU, said: “The quality and calibre of their work, combined with their extensive experience, placed GVA in good stead in what was an exceedingly competitive process. This is a project of considerable scale, however we are satisfied that GVA will be able to assist us in achieving a smooth transition from Perry Barr to the heart of the city centre to meet our 2015 target.”
Work is already underway on the first phase of the City Centre Campus, which will house the Birmingham Institute of Art & Design (BIAD) and the School of Media Studies, and is due to open in September 2013.
The development’s second phase will incorporate the University Business School, Faculty of Education, Law and Social Sciences, and student-facing activities. Work is due to start in March 2013 with an opening date of September 2015.
