Smithfield: a big piece of Birmingham’s jigsaw

LISTEN As Birmingham’s leaders map out a path for transforming the city, one project wants to set the tone in terms of scale and ambition. The 42-acre, £1.9bn Smithfield project will eventually have 3,000 homes – including build-to-rent, for-sale and affordable – and 1.7m sq ft of commercial space that its developers hope will be home to companies large and small. Some 1,000 trees will green the city centre site, a new home for the city’s historic markets will be built and a new plaza, Festival Square, will be able to hold 8,000 people. In a podcast recorded at UKREiiF, Deborah Cadman, chief executive of Birmingham City Council, and Neil Martin, chief executive for Europe at Lendlease, discussed the ways in which they want the project to become an impossible-to-ignore illustration of public and private partnership in action in Birmingham. “It’s really important that this project is one of the main exemplifications of the Future City Framework,” Cadman says. “We need to ensure the process works as quickly and as smartly as possible to get it agreed. We will go loud on the fact that this is the first demonstration of Birmingham being really proactive about the delivery of the framework.” Biggest and best The vision of Cadman and colleagues in the council “blew us away”, says Lendlease’s Martin. The project could be “one of the best regeneration schemes in the country, if not the world”, he says, adding: “We need it to be that.” Sharing that vision between the council and its private-sector partner is crucial, the leaders add. “It’s not just what we’re doing, it’s how we’re doing it that’s important,” Cadman says. “The Smithfield scheme is one of the largest inner-city regeneration schemes in the country. We are really proud and excited to be the host of that and to be the beneficiaries of not just financial investment, but of people who are incredibly skilled in this work, who are prepared to work hand-in-hand with us to deliver this.” Cadman continues: “We’ve both got a stake in this. We want it to be brilliant for a variety of reasons – for the city, but more importantly for its residents and to be part of that offer to world investors. But Lendlease has a number of reasons that it needs it to be brilliant as well. “I’ve talked previously about none of this being a zero-sum game of ‘you win, we lose’. It can’t be about that, and we’ve been very open and honest that if we work in a particular way, everyone benefits from this programme and project that we’ve put in train.” In Martin’s words, the scheme calls for “alignment”. “We can’t take all the risk, you can’t take all the risk,” he says to Cadman. “If we’re actually going to make it work, it’s about how our scheme helps you achieve greater ambitions for Birmingham.” Schemes working together Now, as the city-wide regeneration framework gets under way, Martin is eager for Smithfield to fit into the overarching picture of a shifting Birmingham. “Clearly we want to build an amazing place, create jobs, have the community supporting us in the design of it – but it has to be part of a bigger jigsaw,” he says. That means ensuring Lendlease is on the same page as residents and the local business community in shaping the plans, which are now sitting with the council’s planning department. “In any development, you have to take time,” Martin says. “That’s why people complain about planning at times, because you’ve got to put the time in. Before you even put pen to paper, you’ve got to set up forums to engage with what people would like to see there. What do they think city living is? What is it that they think Birmingham needs more of or less of? You have to get those scopes and those briefs. There are lots of community forums you can tap into, which is great, and then you’ve got to start fleshing that out.” But Martin wants to project to align with the raft of other projects reshaping the city centre too, including its changing infrastructure – and that means cooperation and communication with other private-sector players, not just the council. “Schemes have to work together,” he adds. “That includes HS2 – how London talks to Birmingham is really important. I know that might sound highfalutin, but it’s really important we get that right as well, as well as Digbeth, as well as the other things that are going on in the city. We all need to be sharing information, what we’re up to, because they help each other.” To send feedback, e-mail tim.burke@eg.co.uk or tweet @_tim_burke or @EGPropertyNews Images: Lendlease