Project in focus: Camp Hill, Birmingham

Camp Hill (imagery: © Darling Associates Architects)

A Darling Associates-designed scheme comprising a 167-room hotel, hundreds of homes and flexible commercial space is being lined up for one of the UK’s biggest cities.

Birmingham’s creative quarter Digbeth could soon welcome a new hotel as part of a wider mixed-use development.

A major scheme approved on appeal

The ambitious Camp Hill scheme was approved on appeal by then-housing secretary Robert Jenrick in March 2021, after originally being rejected by Birmingham City Council in February 2020 amid concerns it could affect delivery of the South West Camp Hill Chord rail project. Eutopia Land’s full planning application involves redeveloping a brownfield site in the Digbeth creative quarter bordered by Camp Hill to the west, Coventry Road to the north and Trinity Terrace to the south to create a 167-room hotel, 468 apartments, 12 townhouses and 1,480 sq m of flexible commercial space.

It’s envisaged that there would be seven blocks in total, ranging from three to 27 storeys in height. The hotel is to occupy Block B, a part-seven- and part-eight-storey building with a reception and restaurant on the ground floor and rooms above.

The design team that worked on the proposal includes Darling Associates (lead architect), Park Hood (landscape architect), Terence O’Rourke (planning consultant), Robert Bird Group (structural engineer), Arcadis (cost consultant) and Aecom (services engineer).

Goodstone Living swoops in

In July 2021, Goodstone Living acquired the consented scheme from Eutopia Homes. The real estate developer and investment manager said that the project, which will be known as Camp Hill Gardens, will feature more than 500 build-to-rent homes in total.

Speaking at the time, Goodstone Living principal Martin Bellinger said: “Our strategy is focused on long-term value creation and this requires us to be able to identify significant regeneration opportunities where demographics and cultural shifts are occurring to transform areas in need of new housing.

“As the UK’s second largest city by population, Birmingham benefits from a large and growing pool of potential residents demanding high-quality, purpose-built and professionally managed rental accommodation. This makes Birmingham the perfect place for our first development project, and we look forward to transforming Camp Hill Gardens into a vibrant residential community, while also celebrating Digbeth’s rich industrial heritage.”

Highgate Land and Development is understood to be acting as consultant on the newbuild project, which is expected to open in Q1 2024.

Many TOPHOTELNEWS articles draw on exclusive information from the TOPHOTELPROJECTS construction database. This subscription-based product includes details of thousands of hotel projects around the world, along with the key decision-makers behind them. Please note, our data may differ from records held by other organisations. Generally, the database focuses on four- and five-star schemes of significant scale; tracks projects in either the vision, pre-planning, planning, under-construction, pre-opening or newly opened phase; and covers newbuilds, extensions, refurbishments and conversions.

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