Stoford has submitted plans for the BBC’s new Birmingham home.
The historic Typhoo Building in Digbeth will be one of Birmingham’s first net zero carbon in construction office buildings, dubbed Typhoo Wharf.
The former tea factory and Bordesley Street landmark will provide the BBC with an 84,001 sq ft custom-built centre when it moves from its current home at the Mailbox in 2025.
The scheme will house several BBC editorial teams, including The Archers and the BBC Asian Network.
The detailed planning application represents the first phase of a wider masterplan for the surrounding area.
At the centre of the plans is a comittment to conserving the 1929 tea factory, which has been empty for decades.
Over the next decade, Stoford plans to deliver up to 800,000 sq ft of new residential, office and hospitality space around the new BBC studio.
The wider scheme will see more than 10 acres of underutilised land around Typhoo Wharf and the adjoining canal basin transformed into a mixed-use neighbourhood, with Grant Associates designing the landscape and urban realm.
The concept is for a “canalside quarter”, centred on the canal originally used to bring tea in and out of the Typhoo building.
A new public square will be delivered in time for the first BBC staff to move in in 2026.
Designs for the wider masterplan are being updated following feedback from the public, and will be published in the coming weeks.
Stoford director Gerard Ludlow said: “The feedback from the public – both those who live or work in Digbeth and the thousands of people we reached via social media who are just interested in the scheme – has been overwhelmingly positive. Birmingham’s residents, visitors, and commuters are genuinely excited at the prospect of the BBC making its home at such a recognisable and prominent building.”
The building is on target to achieve a BREEAM rating of Outstanding and an EPC A rating.
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