Lord Mayor and development partners welcome major new student housing project at Bagot Street, Birmingham

A host of organisations gathered last week (26/8) to officially open a new £40m development of student accommodation at Bagot Street in Birmingham.

The Lord Mayor of Birmingham, Cllr Anita Ward, opened the celebrations, welcoming the contribution the development will make to Birmingham’s offer as a University city before releasing 250 balloons to mark the occasion.

Sarah Claughton, Chair of Cosmopolitan Student Homes, Joe Cross, Construction Director of Iliad Group and Mike Voss, Regional Director of Vinci Construction UK were joined by colleagues and partners in the project.

Guests were given a tour of the building which included one of the new student ‘clusters’ at high level which offers impressive views across the city. A total of 119 clusters are provided across three blocks which are centred around a main internal landscaped courtyard. Each cluster consists of a mixture of four, five and six ensuite bedrooms, each with their own communal kitchen and living areas.

Cosmopolitan Student Homes and Iliad Group have jointly developed the 656 bed project adjacent to Birmingham Aston University and near Birmingham City University. Students will begin moving in from September and all rooms were booked by January 2011 following a successful marketing campaign.

The building benefits from a local district energy system by Cofely District Energy. This enables hot water to be provided for the building as a by-product from electricity generated by Birmingham’s International Convention Centre. This, combined with better than building regulation insulation, provides a highly energy efficient student accommodation facility with low running costs and a low carbon footprint.

Funding was secured for the project from Barclays Bank and the building is jointly owned by Iliad Group and Cosmopolitan Student Homes.

Liverpool-based Cosmopolitan Student Homes has been providing student housing since 1969 and currently manages some 3,700 units of accommodation in Liverpool, Manchester, Preston, Salford, Bradford and Stratford-upon-Avon. It is part of the not-for-profit Cosmopolitan Housing Group, which re-invests any surpluses generated into its mainstream social housing provision.

Sarah Claughton, Chair of Cosmopolitan Student Homes said “We are thrilled to be celebrating the opening of this facility. Bagot Street is our second student homes development in the Midlands and we are very excited and pleased to see it completed and ready to welcome this year’s intake of students.

“It’s good news for everyone with an interest in the continued regeneration of Birmingham and of course for the students themselves who will benefit from a really impressive, but affordable place to live.”

Chris Pape, Managing Director, VINCI Construction UK, Building Division - Midlands said: “VINCI Construction UK is delighted to be involved in this project. The innovative and sustainable building not only reduces carbon emissions but also ensures that the accommodation remains affordable for students in years to come.

The excellent quality of the accommodation is befitting of the needs of future students and will certainly put Birmingham on the map for higher education.“

Joe Cross, Construction Director for Iliad said: “The vision of this project was to create the next generation of student accommodation and this was achieved through effective collaboration with partners such as Formroom Architects, Vinci Construction and Cosmopolitan Housing.

This development is the first of its kind in the UK and has been delivered on time, in budget and to the highest Iliad standards.  Each room was let before the development was completed, a testament to the success of the project.”

Iliad were pleased to provide the equity, development and design expertise for this exciting project and look forward to working with Vinci Construction and Cosmopolitan Housing in the future”.

Full details of Cosmopolitan’s housing and services for students can be found at www.CosmoStudents.com

Published: 05/09/11