Funding boost for landmark office scheme

An extra £780,000 to support the construction of a landmark office development in Birmingham has been announced.More than 400 new jobs are expected to be created by 2 Park Square which will see 60,000 sq ft of commercial office space built on a 1.6-acre derelict plot on the site of the er MG Rover car plant in Longbridge.The funding has been provided by the West Midlands Combined Authority (WMCA).The scheme is the latest planned development in the regeneration of Longbridge which has already seen more than 3,700 jobs created.On completion, the wider transformation of the area is expected to create about 9,000 permanent jobs and deliver an estimated economic boost of £500m a year.The announcement follows the award last month of more than £51m of government funding for the WMCA to drive forward significant regeneration schemes on brownfield, former industrial land such as the old MG Rover site at Longbridge.Access to funding was provided by Frontier Development Capital Ltd (FDC), a fund manager working with property developers to arrange investments from the WMCA’s Collective Investment Fund (CIF), Revolving Investment fund (RIF) and Brownfield Land and Property Development Fund (BLPDF). Kieren Turner-Owen, Associate Director – Property, at FDC facilitated the deal.