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INTRODUCING WOODBOURNE GROUP

Woodbourne Group is a privately-owned real estate investment and development group based in the UK. We consider all asset classes, operating with integrity and tenacity, to generate value for our own and our partners’ businesses. The Group’s underlying strategy is focussed on long-term, sustainable growth, with an emphasis on Shaping Future Places™, that our occupiers, partners and the wider community can embrace as their own.

Curzon Wharf will reinvent a circa 3 acre 1960’s site into a newly reinvigorated, dynamic, world-class and sustainable mixed-use ecosystem of commercial, retail, a new breed of residential and student living with vast public spaces. It will be the first net zero-carbon mixed-use ecosystem in the UK, paving Birmingham’s route to delivering transformational change to the city. It promotes social, cultural and economic exchange – a truly transformative urban neighbourhood.

Woodbourne Group is a Birmingham-born company that has a personal interest in elevating the city, preparing it for its next chapter. We are excited by the potential that Curzon Wharf offers, we hope that you are too.

ABOUT CURZON WHARF

Pick any of the countless collisions of creativity that created the fabric of Birmingham, the texture and the identity of this magnificent metropolis, and there was always a time when daily life didn’t include them. The Rotunda was once just a plan, sketched with a draughtsman’s pencil. There was a time when the smallest bit of the library was at the bottom, not at the top. But remember this moment, this now, this before, as Curzon Wharf sets to change the city. This isn’t just a development, it’s a manifesto.

The proposed development at Curzon Wharf will be in line with the vision of the Big City framework, the objectives of Birmingham City Council’s Sustainable Community Strategy and the newly launched Our Future City Plan: Central Birmingham 2040. The masterplan has also been prepared within the context of the adopted Birmingham Development Plan (2017) which sets out a spatial vision and strategy to enable sustainable growth in the city up to 2031.

MASTERPLAN

Woodbourne Group developed its proposals with Birmingham City Council and is now pleased to present the result of an iterative process in this vision document.

Watt Tower | G + 40 storey southern tower to provide purpose-built student accommodation of up to 732 units (Sui Generis).

Galton Skytree | G + 13 storey central tower (Tower 2), to provide up to 265 co-living units (Sui Generis) or 122 residential apartments (Use Class C3);

Boulton Tower | G + 52 storey northern tower (Tower 3) on a 2 storey podium, to provide up to 498 residential apartments (Use Class C3);

R&D/Office/Life Sciences | A G+8 storey office / R&D buildings to provide around 12,000sqm space (Use Class E(g))

To improve the connections between the development and the canal, works are proposed to the existing Canalside wall which will open up the route through to the canal bridges. An indicative landscape scheme has been prepared to open up and enhance the connectivity opportunities throughout the site and to the canal, providing focal points through greenery and creative responses to the change in topography. In addition, the development will include various commercial uses at the ground floor, such as retail, cafes and leisure, to encourage new activity in the area and create a vibrant public space around the buildings.

Provision of amenity facilities within the towers and podium including: retail and food and drink uses [Use Class E (a and c)]; drinking establishments (Sui Generis); indoor assembly and leisure uses such as gymnasiums and bowling alley (Use Class D2); other communal areas, reception and maintenance / operational space; up to 35 car parking spaces, cycle parking and other associated facilities.

Provision of new hard and soft landscaping and associated sustainable urban drainage features, including the creation of a new landscaped plaza area within the central part of the site, which will also accommodate a re-aligned Mill Street to allow vehicular traffic to access the development.

Alterations to the existing listed Canalside Wall to improve the relationship and connectivity of the Site with the Canal. Various improvements to enhance pedestrian connectivity to and through the Site.

DOWNLOAD OUR VISION DOCUMENT

BENEFITS

The area surrounding Curzon Wharf is undergoing huge transformation with a number of masterplans set to shape the character of the area over the coming generation. The Curzon Wharf masterplan is not only mindful in responding to this changing character, but proactive. Other benefits including but are not limited to:

Curzon wharf - HIGH-QUALITY PUBLIC REALM AND GREEN SPACES

SUPPORTS THE OBJECTIVES OF BIRMINGHAM CITY COUNCIL’S SUSTAINABLE COMMUNITY STRATEGY AND THE NEWLY LAUNCHED OUR FUTURE CITY PLAN: CENTRAL BIRMINGHAM 2040

CURZON WHARF WILL BE WIDERANGING IN TYPE IN ORDER TO CATER FOR AN EQUALLY DIVERSE COMMUNITY. CURZON WHARF WILL NATURALLY BECOME A KEY LOCATION FOR THOSE INTERESTED IN LIVING IN BIRMINGHAM

THE WORLD’S FIRST MIXED-USE NET ZERO CARBON ECOSYSTEM – POSITIONING BIRMINGHAM AT THE FOREFRONT OF THE GREEN REVOLUTION

THE REJUVENATION OF THE CANAL SIDE AND THE INTRODUCTION OF DIVERSE PLANTING, GREEN WALLS AND RAINWATER GARDENS, WILL CREATE A NETWORK OF GREEN CORRIDORS AND SPACES TO ENCOURAGE WILDLIFE

CURZON WHARF WILL EVOKE A STRONG SENSE OF PLACE WITH HIGH-QUALITY PUBLIC REALM AND GREEN SPACES SO THAT IT PROMOTES OWNERSHIP AND WHERE PEOPLE IDENTIFY WITH, AND FEEL PRIDE IN THEIR NEIGHBOURHOOD

CURZON WHARF WILL INCLUDE AREAS THAT CAN ACT AS A FOCUS SPACE, ENCOURAGE GENERAL HEALTH AND FITNESS, AND OFFER RECREATIONAL FACILITIES FOR YOUNG FAMILIES

FOCUS WILL BE PLACED ON GIVING OPPORTUNITIES TO LOCAL BUSINESSES AND INDEPENDENT RETAILERS WITH SHARED ASPIRATIONAL VALUES

LEAD TO THE CREATION OF OVER 1000 JOBS AND BOOST THE ECONOMY BY £151M

GALLERY

NEWS

Please see news and commendations related to the Curzon Wharf masterplan below. This page will be regularly updated as and when we have information or news to share.

Leader of Birmingham City Council, Cllr Ian Ward

“This exciting project will put Birmingham right at the forefront of green, sustainable development and underlines our determination to tackle the climate crisis, while also creating jobs and opportunities for people across the city. We’ve shown with the recent launch of Our Future City Plan consultation that Birmingham has the ambition and vision to become a more resilient, sustainable and inclusive city and Curzon Wharf shows our determination to turn vision into reality.

We want to work with the people and communities of Birmingham as we re-imagine and reshape our city, so I would urge as many people as possible to have their say in this consultation.”

Andy Street, the Mayor of the West Midlands

“This is an incredibly exciting plan, with the potential to create more than 1,000 jobs at what will be a critical time for our region’s economy as we recover from the coronavirus pandemic. It is brilliant to see how innovative the masterplan is, not only through being net-zero and contributing towards our #WM2041 goal, but also with the life sciences element which will help create a number of high-skilled, well-paid, jobs in a key industry of the future, building on the recent investment at the life sciences site in Selly Oak./p>

I will support Tani and his team at Woodbourne Group as best I can as Mayor to get this scheme moving.”

Preet Kaur Gill, MP

“With HS2 and the Commonwealth Games on the horizon, it will bring fantastic investment opportunities to Birmingham. I’m delighted to see the Woodbourne Group’s Curzon Wharf plan moving forwards as it marks a major change from previous approaches. Not only will the plan create new jobs and homes for the local area but most importantly, it will set a new benchmark for sustainable development and inclusive building.

For me, it is so important that we learn the lessons that the pandemic has taught us. So, to see issues like mental health being put front and centre into plans and design is fantastic and is exactly what the city needs.”

Robert van Zyl, Managing Partner Birmingham, Cundall

“Achieving net zero carbon is not easy, but it is the right thing to do. It is therefore wonderful to see Curzon Wharf setting out from the very first steps to achieve this ambitious goal. Woodbourne Group are leaders of the movement to develop Birmingham sustainably, and working with them to deliver the city’s first mixed use net zero carbon development is an exciting prospect”

GET INVOLVED

To have your say in the Symbol of Birmingham’s future, by filling out the from below. Curzon Wharf will deliver a world-class and sustainable mixed-use ecosystem containing life sciences, a new breed of residential and student living with vast public spaces never seen in Birmingham before. It will reinforce Birmingham’s position as the 2nd city. Be a part of the future history – this is Birmingham.

Please send all feedback by 26th March 2021.