Birmingham Post & Mail

[woodhousen]

abstract, thats the one!

yes, times for them have not been so good since there hayday when they completed colmore plaza....

...and yes, the building was built for printing, but unlike the mailbox, the post and mail prints are upto 4 storeys underground.... short of parking, there are very few other land uses you can put underground..

mark my words, the original building IS going to be demoished!

[Nacho]

That sounds better .

[fruit&nut]

Originally Posted by woodhousen

mark my words, the original building IS going to be demoished!

Hurrah!

And let's face it, it will be no loss!

Not even I-L-C could be a fan of this one..................could he?

[i_like_concrete]

That depends! I wanna know what they intend to replace it with before they go about demolishing it!

[edgexedge]

Originally Posted by i_like_concrete

That depends! I wanna know what they intend to replace it with before they go about demolishing it!

a timber-framed, wattle & daub infilled, tudor pastiche

[Erebus555]

I'd love to know how they would fit 500,000 sq ft of space into that...

[Steldemetriou]

More from Egi

Mailbox developer buys Birmingham's Trinity Mirror site
Lisa Pilkington 10/07/2009 10:05

The developer behind Birmingham’s Mailbox development has acquired one of the city’s most prominent sites for a new development.

Birmingham Development Company (BDC) has acquired the 500,000 sq ft vacant former Post & Mail printing works in the Colmore Business District from newspaper group Trinity Mirror for an undisclosed sum.

The building has been sitting empty since October last year after Trinity Mirror, which publishes the Birmingham Post and Evening Mail, relocated to 50,000 sq ft of offices at Urban Splash’s Fort Dunlop scheme on the edge of the city centre.

In April, EG exclusively reported that Abstract Land co-founders Mark Glatman and James Howarth walked away from its purchase of the 2-acre printworks site from Trinity Mirror because of the impossibility of securing development funding.

Abstract lost its 10% deposit on the £12m deal, which exchanged in March 2007, but had a delayed completion subject to the newspaper group moving out of the building.

Plans for the building have not yet been finalised but, in line with Birmingham’s Big City Plan, the proposed scheme will look to address the connectivity and lack of current amenities in the traditional business core.

The building could provide a mix of retail, restaurant, leisure, hotel and office uses, together with car parking, and hopes to bridge the gap between existing commercial developments.

The deal was achieved in six weeks and will be the next scheme to be delivered by BDC’s own contractor BuildAbility.

Birmingham Development Company directors Alan Chatham and Mark Billingham said: “It is exciting to find a building of this scale in such a prominent central location and at a value that provides us the opportunity to do something really special with it.

"Our company does not do ‘ordinary’, each of our schemes are complex and unique and, as such, we will never build The Cube or The Mailbox again - we are looking to do something different that will make the most of the location and create a new landmark for Birmingham."

BDC has already delivered the The Mailbox - the 1.5 m sq ft redevelopment of the former Royal Mail sorting office into the UK’s largest mixed-use building - and its latest £100m development project, The Cube, is set to complete in 2010.

The site is of strategic importance within central Birmingham - situated at the head of the traditional business centre of Colmore Row.

The 1960s, 9-storey building is located next to Carlyle Group’s Colmore Plaza.

BDC will announce the design team next month and a planning application will be submitted before the end of the year.

GVA Grimley advised BDC.

http://www.egi.co.uk/Articles/Articl...vigationID=464

[markmcd1976]

Will it be a knock down and re-build or a re-furb?

[KHvillan]

The foundations could support 20 storeys I've heard...

[woodhousen]

well plans originally saw a 35 storey office block on the site with 25 storey resi little brother

[Brums'grove]

Originally Posted by woodhousen

well plans originally saw a 35 storey office block on the site with 25 storey resi little brother

That would of been very good here.
Im hoping then they knock it down rather than refurb the building, although with the costs it seems more likely we will see the present building refurbished as the news stories suggest.

[i_like_concrete]

It would take an almighty refurb to turn the present building into anything worthwhile. It's just a blob of concrete tucked behind two office buildings. They would struggle immensely to achieve the kind of mixed use scheme they want if they maintain the present building, who the fuck would want to open a shop or restaraunt in that slab of shit?

[woodhousen]

exactly, im actually a little shocked that so many of you think such a building will be kept..... they want to turn this into a lankmark, and yes landmarks dont need to be tall, but in an area which is due to be surrounded in towers, i'd love to see how they could chane the existing building into anything like a landmark.

also how on earth do you guys think they could address issues of permeability with this site without removing the one building on the site. BDP are the people who built the mailbox and the cube, two of the most distintive buildings in the city.... they will be happy to think outside the box!

[Brums'grove]

I do agree with you Woody that the most likely thing to happen is a complete rebuild, maybe im just reading too much into the news story which makes it out that this building could be something of a landmark which i really dont see could happen in its present form.

[Nacho]

Originally Posted by woodhousen

the people who built the mailbox and the cube, two of the most distintive buildings in the city.... they will be happy to think outside the box!

Nicely put Woodhousen .

[Nacho]

Originally Posted by woodhousen

the people who built the mailbox and the cube, two of the most distintive buildings in the city.... they will be happy to think outside the box!

Nicely put Woodhousen .

[edgexedge]

Originally Posted by woodhousen

exactly, im actually a little shocked that so many of you think such a building will be kept..... they want to turn this into a lankmark, and yes landmarks dont need to be tall, but in an area which is due to be surrounded in towers, i'd love to see how they could chane the existing building into anything like a landmark.

also how on earth do you guys think they could address issues of permeability with this site without removing the one building on the site. BDP are the people who built the mailbox and the cube, two of the most distintive buildings in the city.... they will be happy to think outside the box!

they are the ones who have the experience of dealing with this sort of structure, it is very similar to the Mailbox.

as this view shows, the lower 2 floors are already quite open, the 3rd floor already has a large number of windows.


as for permeability, to & from where?
the existing passage between this site & Colmore Plaza could be extended to Whittall St.
where else, theres nowhere to get to & from, the only access to Weaman St is from either end.

[Telfordboy]

Originally Posted by Nacho

Nicely put Woodhousen .

I never noticed the word play there. Good stuff Woody

There is something about the existing building that I quite like, though not enough that I would oppose its destruction for something better.

[morestoreysplease]

The best thing about this is the geography aspect for more retail and commercial space and it also stretches the retail core out to the north. With Bullring being in the south, The Mailbox to the west, this would complete a triangle of malls. And of course Martineau would serve the east.

[fruit&nut]

It would be nice if they could get hold of the Thistle Hotel site aswell - and that awful multistorey car park.