Chartered surveyors Johnson Fellows is pointing retailers in the right direction to become a significant part of the ongoing regeneration of Birmingham’s Eastside.
The Birmingham-based retail specialist is marketing three commercial retail units at Millennium Point, which is home to Birmingham City University, Birmingham Metropolitan College, the Thinktank Museum and The Giant Screen Cinema. Aston University is also located adjacent to the building.
The former Point Café has been subdivided into three high specification shell units that are suitable for catering or retail use. The number of students using the facilities is expected to increase dramatically as Birmingham City University opens its new multi-million pound creative campus.
Millennium Point is a flagship development in the regeneration of Eastside and is key to Birmingham’s Big City Plan. Eastside is being transformed into a vibrant world-class environment for business, learning, leisure, technology and creative industries. The project has doubled the amount of open space in the city centre through the creation of Eastside Park, and continues to attract new businesses to stimulate further regeneration in the surrounding area.
Stuart Bridgewater, senior surveyor at Johnson Fellows, said: “There are currently no other branded food or retail offerings in the immediate vicinity and there is a strong demand for a quality food and retail presence in Eastside.
“The glazed fronted units are located within the central atrium at Millennium Point, making them ideal for retailers to benefit from the high level of footfall to the university, college, museum and cinema.”
The scheme will also include a new customer toilet block and a separate seating area in front of the units will be provided and managed by the landlords.
The student population at Millennium Point is set to increase from 3,000 to 6,500 in September 2013 and there are an additional 6,000 students in the adjoining campus. The Thinktank receives over 200,000 visitors per year and The Giant Screen Cinema has more than 100,000 customers annually.
As part of Birmingham’s Big City Plan and in preparation for the arrival of HS2, there are also plans to build new office developments adjacent to Millennium point, which will help to boost footfall even further.
Tahir Yousaf, commercial director for Millennium Point Property, said: “Our goal is to drive visitors to the building with a sustained programme of events and activities and we believe that, by creating these developments, we will attract strong, customer focused tenants to serve the needs of our visitors.”
Stuart added: “We’ve already received interest from a number of national catering and retail brands that would like the opportunity to be part of the exciting regeneration of Eastside.”
The units, measuring 550 sq ft, 688 sq ft and 900 sq ft, are available to rent at £12,500, £15,000 and £18,000 per annum respectively.