Supermarket Sweep(ing) away Edgbaston redevelopment
Work looks set to begin soon on the new Morrisons Supermarket which will replace the site of the Edgbaston Shopping Centre at Five Ways. The development will see a two-storey store, five shops and a car park and is an updated version of an earlier application for a superstore which was slated by City Council planners for being substandard for a gateway site, http://www.bdonline.co.uk/news/birmingham-planners-slam-davis-weatherills-morrisons-design/5003929.article. The revised design is aimed at being more in keeping with the 1950s Marriott Hotel next door and Victorian buildings in adjacent Harborne Road and includes a large green fin over it's entrance and outdoor public seating area adding life to the side fronting Hagley Road.
Photos showing the demolition of the old Five Ways Shopping Centre in 2008.
The application and the store however mark a radical departure from what could have been a wonderful £110 million mixed use gateway development which was abandoned as land owners Calthorpe Estates struggled to get the scheme off the ground.
Work is due to begin this year with groundwork investigation currently taking place on the site which is being used temporarily as a car park.
The store is due to open Mid 2012. Morrisons have promised to offer 60 per cent of the 114 full and 189 part time jobs to locals by working closely with the city council and Jobcentre Plus.
A view of the site, currently being used as a car park.
Comments
Once you build a supermarket there, you won't have another chance to develop that area for several decades to come.
I hope Calthorpe Estates can hold out with their original vision.
Once you build a supermarket on the site, you won't get another opportunity to develop the area for another few decades at least.
I hope that Calthorpe Estates can hold out for another chance to pursue theie scheme.