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A rewarding, or should that be awarding, week!

November 3rd, 2010 [ No comments ] [ Add comment ]
by Emily Jones

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The spotlight’s well and truly been on our Fort Dunlop scheme in Birmingham this week…

I was extremely proud last Tuesday to have collected the ‘Economic Project of the Decade’ award from Regen WM, an award that reinforced just how great this scheme has been, the calibre of businesses who now operate from here and the jobs they’ve created. I was even more privileged to see that the building beat off stiff competition from other fantastic schemes in the area including the hugely successful Bullring.

Just a few days later we got word that the scheme had won the Renaissence award from the Civic Society acknowledging its position as one of Birmingham’s leading business destinations.

Then, just when I thought I couldn’t get any prouder of the scheme, where I’ve been letting commercial space for the past four years, the BBC called up and asked if they could do a piece for the One Show about the old and new communities of Fort Dunlop. We duly obliged and last week the piece was aired, showing the fondness that’s held for the building in and around Birmingham.

So its definitely been a great week, and I for one feel very FORTunate to work at this great place!

Filed under: Birmingham, Fort Dunlop, Urban Splash No comments

Partying in the big cities

October 4th, 2010 [ 1 comment ] [ Add comment ]
by Tom Bloxham MBE

It strikes me as amazing that all three political party conferences are being held in our big cities; the Liberal Democrats in Liverpool, the Labour Party in Manchester and the Tories in Birmingham. This would have been inconceivable only a few years ago when party conferences were typically held in towns like Bournemouth, Blackpool and Harrogate with many people looking down their noses at the major cities considering them too dirty and congested, or without sufficient facilities.

The feedback I get is that delegates enjoy coming to the big city venues, are proud of the transformation they can see in these cities and are impressed with the welcome offered. The challenge now is  to keep the momentum of transformation in our cities. Our progress has taken a long time and lots of resources having been initiated by Lord Heseltine, accelerated by Lord Rogers’ taskforce and driven through by Lord Prescott.

The continual regeneration of our cities appears low on the priorities of all three parties and there’s a real danger of the progress we have seen stopping, or event going into reverse.

To see what the general opinion was I took the ‘Cab test’ and asked a driver what he thought of Labour being in Manchester. “Great for business,” he said, “but the Tories are even better. Not because of their politics but they walk less and cab it more!”

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Filed under: Birmingham, Liverpool, Manchester, Tom Bloxham MBE, Urban Splash 1 comment

1 comments to Partying in the big cities

  1. Andy Spinoza says:
    October 5, 2010 at 7:56 pm

    I agree Tom that it’s a thoroughly positive trend. Not only does it give us champions of regional cities a chance to introduce decision makers a real taste of a different city from the capital, the media figures also get a chance to have their preconceptions challenged, often with positIve results in the press.

    We must guard against tokenism, though, and continue to press the case for the northern cities in the seeming vacuum - as you say - of a coherent policy to support the core cities through the inevitable hard times ahead.

Cold beers, cheese and celebrity chefs – a day in the life of Fort Dunlop!

July 20th, 2010 [ No comments ] [ Add comment ]
by Nick Batt

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I attended the ‘Taste of Birmingham’ event on the Fort Dunlop roof last week. It was a ‘pre’ event celebrating the launch of the actual festival which will take place across Birmingham this week.

More than 100 of our tenants came along (helped by the sunshine!) to taste lots of lovely locally produced products – including cheese and beers.

A celebrity chef, Alan Coxon, was on hand to give us more information about what we were eating, so it turned into a really informative afternoon.

You might have seen my colleague Emily’s earlier blog about another rooftop event at the Fort and its fair to say we are becoming quite partial to them (especially in these Summer months). It’s the largest ‘living’ green roof in the country and is vast in size with lots of permanent furniture and structures in place for parties.

Drop me a line if you’re interested in hosting an event up there. Or for any other details about the Fort.

Filed under: Birmingham, Fort Dunlop, Urban Splash No comments

Reaching dizzy heights at Fort Dunlop

June 15th, 2010 [ No comments ] [ Add comment ]
by Emily Jones

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What a fantastic month it’s been at Fort Dunlop, we’ve welcomed new tenants, opened a new café and this week we hosted one of the summer’s best networking events on the building’s roof!

The event was arranged by the British Council of Offices (BCO), and sponsored by design company Overbury. The BCO decided to host it with us following our national award from them in 2008.

The event was attended by more than 50 key business people each of whom enjoyed an Asian style BBQ and selection of wines high up on the Fort Dunlop roof. We gave each attendee an extensive tour and they got a talk from our superb tenants Trinity Mirror who publish the Birmingham Post and Mail in the building.

Everyone appeared to have as much fun as I did; meeting new people and getting some great views of Birmingham! It was also great to remind people about Fort Dunlop and everything we have going on here. It’s a busy place now but there are still some offices left; from 900 sq ft to 20,000 sq ft. Drop me a line at emilyjones@urbansplash.co.uk if you’re interested, I’ll even show you the roof!

Filed under: Birmingham, Fort Dunlop, Urban Splash No comments

Royalty welcomed at Fort Dunlop, Birmingham

May 27th, 2009 [ 1 comment ] [ Add comment ]
by Leanne Forshaw

Fort Dunlop

Yesterday we welcomed royalty at Fort Dunlop as Princess Anne visited the scheme.

She was there to officially launch the new offices of BPM (Media) - home to the Birmingham Post and Mail newspapers. They’re a great tenant and have added another dimension to the mix of people already working at the building. There are retailers, like home furnishing store Dwell, art gallery Snap and bars and restaurants such as the trendy Glass Lounge. There’s also office space fit for any sized business; BPM’s offices are fifty times the size of our smallest suites - that’s how diverse the offering is! Since the building’s completion in 2006 the building has been a great success, being more than 95% let since the day we completed.

Yesterday’s event tops off an exciting few months for us at the Fort where we’ve welcomed many a celebrity including popstar Jamelia (who was there to film an advert), Roy Wood from Slade (whose famous “I Wish it Could be Christmas Everyday” track dominates the festive playlists every December), TV presenter Charlie Dimmock and Birmingham based Reggae legends UB40 who used the iconic Fort Dunlop for a photo shoot.

For more details and pics of Princess Anne’s visit, see the Birmingham Mail website.

Filed under: Birmingham, Fort Dunlop, Urban Splash - tags: , ,
1 comment

1 comments to Royalty welcomed at Fort Dunlop, Birmingham

  1. Rob Ford says:
    September 2, 2009 at 2:56 pm

    A bit late I know, but I do hope you didn’t ask Roy Wood about his time with Slade. The Move, Wizard or ELO maybe. However it’s nice to see the building given a new lease of life.