Bloc Magazine Spring 15

T he £600million Snow Hill Masterplan is part of a 20- year project to transform the city and create a global finance hub. Britain’s second city has ambitious plans to create enough new office space to cover the equivalent of 28 full-sized football pitches. City chiefs want to take on London, Frankfurt and Zurich by tempting more firms to follow in the footsteps of Deutsche Bank and make headquarters in Birmingham. The scheme is essential to create jobs for the rapidly expanding city, whose population is projected to grow a further 150,000 by 2031. It dovetails with the arrival of HS2 train network linking Birmingham with Paris, Brussels, Amsterdam and Frankfurt, as well as the £750million rennovation of the city’s New Street station. Council leader Sir Albert Bore said: “Birmingham is putting in place the building blocks for a global business and financial centre. The city is already investing heavily to ensure that firms have everything they need to thrive here. “With time, we want the city to replicate the success of Canary Wharf, with areas like the Snow Hill district forming the cornerstone of this vision.” BLOC Birmingham is at the beating heart of the development which will include 4,000 new homes, improved transport links and a tree-lined urban boulevard connecting the Jewellery Quarter with neighbouring areas. It is designed to support existing investments including the the arrival of HS2’s new construction headquarters at Two Snowhill – which will employ 1,500 people – and the extension of the £127million Midland Metro network. “I AM A WEST-MIDLANDER BY BLOOD, AND TOOK TO EARLY WEST-MIDLAND MIDDLE ENGLISH AS TO A KNOWN TONGUE AS SOON AS I SET EYES ON IT.” J.R.R. TOLKIEN WWW.BLOCHOTELS.COM // 23

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