Midlands based construction company, Thomas Vale, has handed over keys to a new 42,149 sq ft speculatively designed office building to Innovation Birmingham.
iCentrum®, located just off the A38 Aston Expressway at the Innovation Birmingham Campus, was one of the first to start on-site within the GBSLEP’s Enterprise Zone and will provide space for 400 high-value skilled tech jobs at any one time; generating £25 million of GVA to the local economy per annum.
Thomas Vale, which is now part of national construction and development business, Bouygues UK, have been on-site since early 2015 and has successfully delivered the £8 million project both on-time and on-budget, following a 60 week build programme.
Craig Tatton, Managing Director at Thomas Vale said: “This project has been a great success for everyone. Not only have we delivered a fantastic facility that will drive the future of Birmingham’s digital economy, we have also delivered some great community initiatives, including our National Skills Academy for Construction on this site. Through working our partners Job Centre Plus and the Women into Construction Project, we have delivered multiple workshops and site tours. It is early days but already 3 people have secured full time employment and many others are now working through their employment development plan on their way to full time employment.”
Dr David Hardman MBE, CEO at Innovation Birmingham, said: “Delivering iCentrum to the Innovation Birmingham Campus marks another exciting milestone in the development plans for Innovation Birmingham and we are thrilled that the project has been completed both on-time and on-budget.
The building will perfectly complement our thriving Faraday Wharf building adding to our offering to Birmingham’s more digitally-orientated entrepreneurs and SMEs from across all key business sectors in the regional economy.”