One Centenary Way reaches practical completion

One Centenary Way has reached Practical Completion (PC) this week, as we hand the building over to developer and asset manager MEPC, ready for the occupier fit out phase of internal works.

Despite the challenges of the Covid pandemic and the complexity of the building’s location, directly above the live A38 Queensway tunnel in the heart of Birmingham, it has been constructed with minimal disruption and lost time over the past three years.

The 280,000 sq ft One Centenary Way is one of the city’s most sustainable buildings with a pure electric heating and hot water supply system and SMART access to services, information and facilities throughout its large, 22,000 sq ft floorplates. All of this combines to allow for extremely agile and spacious office layouts as well as highly sustainable new commercial space.

One Centenary Way also bookends Paradise and Centenary Square as a major new landmark for the city. Its sky lantern feature – launched just before Christmas 2022 – underlines this role and provides a major feature within the city centre with a 360-degree light display capable of changing through more than 1 million different colours.

The first major office letting for One Centenary Way was announced in 2021 when global employee-owned built environment consultancy Arup committed to 68,000 sq ft of space across three floors. Arup will be relocating its Midlands office and 1,000 staff to the building later in 2023 and has begun work on their fit out. 

In another significant inward investment move, international investment bank Goldman Sachs cemented its commitment to Birmingham by selecting One Centenary Way at Paradise Birmingham to be the permanent home of its new UK base last year.

Its new office will occupy 110,000 sq ft of space across the top five floors of the building, including a roof terrace overlooking Centenary Square on the 12th floor. This move signified the largest commercial real estate deal in Birmingham of 2022 and a major coup for the city.

Rob Groves, regional development director at MEPC, the commercial property development and asset management arm of Federated Hermes, said: "The practical completion of One Centenary Way is another significant chapter in the story of Paradise and the city. It is a testament to the dedication and collaborative approach of the construction and design teams to deliver this complex new building with its exceptional SMART and sustainability credentials. The early success of the lettings only highlights that its exceptional quality has been recognised and endorsed by leading global businesses."

"As we continue to gather momentum around Paradise and build upon the huge progress we have made so far with Phase One and now the first building completing as part of Phase Two, we can look forward with confidence to further buildings and phases coming ahead.  These include the world first pure Octagon residential tower which is starting to make its mark on the city’s skyline and the start of construction of the next commercial building, Three Chamberlain Square due to start on site later this year."