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!

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.

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!