Birmingham’s Booming

With the UK’s BCO Conference visiting Birmingham this week, the city will show a thriving and evolving city centre, attracting the best talent. Nowhere is this more evident than at Paradise: a living room for the city that eschews the monotony of modern business districts and links the cultural hotbeds of Chamberlain and Centenary Squares.

Overlooking Centenary Square is One Centenary Way, a next-generation workplace at the heart of the new mixed-use district developed by MEPC. Home to international companies such as Goldman Sachs and Arup—the building’s structural engineer—the district boasts a growing roster of top-tier firms now calling Paradise home.

“We chose Paradise primarily because of its city centre location. The city’s facing an enormous range of challenges going forward, and we want to be part of that conversation to help improve the place we live and work in,” remarked James Watts, Director and Office Leader of Arup Midlands. “Of course, we’ve been involved with Paradise for so many years that we wanted to move into one of the buildings we designed and we’re proud of.”

The move was also strategic. National and international connectivity, attracting potential future employees and reducing carbon footprint were all factors in the company’s decision to move its regional base from a suburb to a city centre location.

“Birmingham has transformed over the past 20 years, and we now need to be in the city centre to attract and retain the best talent. We also need to think about our carbon footprint and by moving our office from the outskirts of the city into the centre we’ve reduced our carbon footprint by over 60% just by asking everyone to switch to public transport. We have no car parking spaces, and everyone’s expected to make use of public transport, and everyone’s been very willing to do that. We also wanted to be closer to our local clients and better connected to our regional, national, and international clients.”

Arup enjoys the benefits of sharing the Paradise development with like-minded companies that make up the campus environment. James continues, “Moving into Paradise, we’ve already felt that sense of community, and we’re new in the city centre, but of course, it gives us these immediate connections with our fellow tenants. Both the business connections and the social value opportunities and for celebrating diversity and inclusivity in all our commitments.”