Second Court Collaboration Tower Caught Up In Birmingham Skyscraper Wars
Digbeth’s tower wars have taken a new twist as proposals are lodged for a 48-storey one dubbed “mad” by protesters.
A revised application for the site of the Irish Club, Digbeth, has been registered with Birmingham City Council.
This is the second skyscraper plan by Court Collaboration to meet opposition as developers await Birmingham's new tall building policy.
The Court Collaboration scheme envisages 454 build-to-rent apartments. The planning statement has been revised since a first version was submitted in June, and now takes into account comments from city planners. There will be a gym, cinema and coworking floorspace.
The developer’s planning statement, submitted with the application, concedes that the tower poses “an indirect low adverse magnitude of impact to the setting of Digbeth Deritend and Bordesley Conservation Area. The assessment identifies that this would ordinarily constitute a moderate adverse significance of effects". But the developers conclude this amounts to a “less than severe” harm to the Digbeth conservation area.
Some social media reaction has been adverse. The limited car parking (but increased cycling space) was called “mad” by some Twitter users whilst another said the tower was out of keeping with a generally low-rise Digbeth, Birmingham Live reported.
The tower is also opposed by a local campaign group, Digbeth Deserves Better.
Last month tensions in the Birmingham city centre apartment market boiled over with LaSalle Investment Management taking the first steps toward legal action against separate Court Collaboration’s plans for the 51-storey One Eastside build-to-rent apartment tower at James Watt Queensway.
Two towers will contain 667 apartments. The £160M scheme won planning permission in April.
