Sphere unwraps £350m Rackhams Birmingham plan
Proposals to redevelop a landmark former city department store have been unveiled by developer Sphere Group, with more than 500 homes and a revitalised Cherry Street included in initial designs.
Regeneration plans for the vacant Rackhams store are also set to include two other adjacent buildings – at 43 Temple Row, and 1 Temple Row – as part of a mixed-use development on the L&G owned site.
A consultation on the proposals launched today has revealed further details of the scheme, which is set to include 510 apartments alongside 225,000 sq ft of office space, and almost 50,000 sq ft of ground floor retail.
Sphere says feedback gathered during the consultation will be used to shape a planning application to Birmingham City Council.
A view of how offices at the redeveloped Rackhams could look. Fencing and trees omitted for illustrative purposes. Credit: Sphere Group
The Gensler-designed scheme includes three buildings on the plot, with two residential blocks reaching 34 storeys and 16 storeys respectively. A third building, a nine-storey office block facing Cathedral Square, would round out the development.
A total of 75,000 sq ft of public space is included in the proposals, with an urban linear park proposed for a widened Cherry Street, with a public square proposed to replace a run-down shopping precinct.
The mostly-empty North Western Arcade runs through the centre of the site, directly linking Temple Row with one of the city’s other major current regeneration proposals at the Martineau Galleries on Corporation Street.
Ground floor retail space and a widened Cherry Street is included in the proposals. Credit: Sphere
Plans revealed by Henley Capital and Sixth Street earlier this year could see a 1,500-apartment tower built on a redeveloped site, currently occupied by the Martineau Place shopping arcade.
Both proposals form part of the Birmingham Central Heart vision, which includes up to 5,000 homes, and more than 4.3m sq ft of commercial floorspace as part of a redeveloped and “HS2-ready” Birmingham city centre.
Sphere’s Paradise-adjacent development, Edition, is currently under construction near Birmingham Library, while the group handed over the city’s joint tallest building at One Eastside earlier this summer.
The proposals can be viewed in full on the Rackhams Place consultation website.
