Apartments plan for site of city rock club
Hopes scheme will regenerate rundown area next to Mailbox
THE former home of Eddies Rock Club in Birmingham city centre could see a massive new student apartment development reaching up to 29 storeys built.
The new plans would see a brownfield plot near the Mailbox regenerated to contain 540 studios across two adjoining buildings.
The half-acre application site sits at the corner of Gough Street and Suffolk Street Queensway, dwarfing the red-brick church Universal Church of the Kingdom of God, around which it will be built.
It would have a roof terrace on the 29th floor, gym, social hub, 24-hour concierge, games area and bookable private dining rooms.
Up to 460 jobs will be created on site during construction with a further 15 through site management and other roles.
Construction is set to start on site in November and complete in 2025, subject to consent. The application site was most recently occupied by a former print works.
Developer MRP won consent for a hotel there in 2019 but has since gone back to the drawing board and returned with this new scheme.
A previous project by a different developer to build 73 apartments was given the green light at the site in 2015 but work never started and the former Birmingham United Services Club, which housed Eddies Rock Club until 2014, was subsequently demolished.
The proposed new student tower would be run by specialist operator Vita Student, which opened accommodation on the former BBC Pebble Mill site in Edgbaston in 2019, and which has already worked with MRP on its ‘Cannon Park’ project in Warwick due to open later this year.
MRP also built the Onyx scheme of 1,025 student bedrooms at Lancaster Circus island in Birmingham city centre.
Vita’s chief commercial officer Mark Oakes said: “Vita Group already has an established relationship with MRP and we are looking forward to working with them again on this site in Birmingham.
“Gough Street will provide the perfect opportunity to add to the vibrant community of students currently living near the Chinese Quarter while helping alleviate some of the strain on the city brought by an increased student population.
“The plans aim to create best-inclass student accommodation with outstanding amenities and will help to attract students from not only in the UK but from across the world to Birmingham due to the increased accessibility of higher standards of student residences.”
The plans aim to create best-in-class student accommodation with outstanding amenities and will help to attract students. Vita Student