Birmingham Innovation Zone
Birmingham Innovation Zone (BIZ) is a major innovation cluster in Birmingham’s city centre, based on development land around the existing Aston University city centre campus.
Market Ask
The developer Bruntwood has earmarked up to £1bn of capital to realise the project, but there remains an opportunity for an additional funding partner to bring additional equity in to this circa £3bn GDV project over the next 15-25 years.
The established JV has already put a significant value into the partnership through land and asset value and are open to introductory conversations with funders who can bring additionality to the purpose and objectives of the scheme. Interest is sought from funders that bring deep experience in innovation-led brownfield development, strong industry and research links, and those connected to HEI spin-out commercialisation and VC-style investing.
A newly established JV between the city council, the university and national developer Bruntwood Sci Tech will be seeking joint capital partners that can bring additionality and specific experience of innovation-led development.
The site is prime for delivery of knowledge-intensive, R&D-driven real estate leveraging Aston University’s engineering, advanced digital technologies, and health tech research clustering.
The immediate BIZ investment opportunity centres around a 25ha core – part of a wider ‘Knowledge Quarter’ that provides an additional 30ha.
The Knowledge Quarter will provide further phases of high-productivity employment space to be developed at the same density and use classes. This wider zone incorporates existing institutions that are contributors to the wider purpose of BIZ; Birmingham Children’s Hospital with a world-recognised genomics department; Birmingham City University Campus; High Speed Two terminus, Curzon, including neighbouring development land earmarked for a Commercial Zone.
Both sites are currently largely brownfield and economically underused space and approximately 70% of land within this area is currently underdeveloped or in need of physical regeneration.
The current masterplan allows for 1.5 million sq ft of new commercial, the provision of circa 2,200 new homes, a new 400 keys hotel, new F&B and Leisure facilities and 15ha of public realm and open space.
The site is part of ongoing discussions between the regional and central governments to make BIZ part of the West Midlands Investment Zone, which would confer a wide array of planning and tax relief benefits and support the necessary infrastructure development to enable full delivery.
Location
BIZ sits on the periphery of the city core of Birmingham, the UK’s second city. The wider BIZ site is close to the terminus of High Speed Two which will connect the site to central London in 45 minutes.
The ‘Aston Triangle’ is currently cut off from the rest of the city by the road network, separating the university and communities from the city centre. BIZ will bring some of the UK’s most deprived wards in the centre of a cutting-edge, green and inclusive innovation zone, offering unrivalled access to skills and high value jobs.
Planning
The BIZ core sites align with the Our Future City Plan. The Local Planning Authority is part of the delivery JV. The LPA are exploring the opportunity to embed conducive mechanisms and structures that ensure the quality of the development and embed planning as a tool for delivering BIZ at pace within Birmingham’s wider Future City Plan framework.
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