Advantage West Midlands has a key role to play in supporting the acquisition, assembly, reclamation and re-use of brownfield and under-utilised land.
We focus a significant proportion of our budget (around £110 million during 2005-08) on land and property. Schemes we are involved in range from major employment sites, such as Ansty in Coventry and i54 in the Black Country, to leading-edge science and business parks that provide incubator and grow on space such as Malvern Hills Science Park and Longbridge Technology Park, to small industrial units in rural areas through our Property Regeneration Partnership.
The major, flagship projects that we are involved in, including Birmingham Gateway New Street Station, Royal Shakespeare Theatre in Stratford upon Avon and Stoneleigh Park in Warwickshire, will play an important role in improving the attractiveness of our region as a place to invest, work, learn, visit and live.
MIPIM 2009
Advantage West Midlands attended MIPIM 2009 in March. MIPIM is the largest property show in the world and is a unique opportunity to showcase on a world stage what the West Midlands Region has to offer.
The short to medium-term across the property sector is going to be tough. But our presence at MIPIM is about the long-term. Things will get better again, and when they do we need to make sure the West Midlands is prepared and ready to compete.
Advantage West Midlands is the driving force behind Team West Midlands, the private-public sector sponsorship which provides the region with a powerful voice at MIPIM. To find out more visit www.teamwestmidlands.com
The £48m gap funding programme
Following the success of the gap funding programme in 2006, Advantage West Midlands has announced the launch of a new £48m programme.
The programme has been designed to support developers with a commercial or industrial development opportunity which is currently financially unviable.
The scheme is region-wide and applications will be considered from £100,000 to 9,000,000 of funding meeting the criteria.
The project is being managed by Thomas Lister on behalf of Advantage West Midlands.
For further information please visit www.thomaslister.com (Opens in new window) or call 01527 871640.
The Property Regeneration Partnership (PxP)
Early in 2007, Advantage West Midlands established a joint venture with Langtree Group Plc/Bank of Scotland to create a new entity to accelerate the delivery of commercial developments throughout our region.
This new vehicle, branded PxP, will bring forward schemes on a number of Advantage West Midlands sites, together with identifying additional opportunities to improve the competitiveness and overall prosperity of our region. The expertise brought to this venture by such experienced partners will generate valuable new initiatives in this field.
More information on the sites involved in the PxP will appear here shortly.
Our development team
The Advantage West Midlands development team some 30 professional and support staff embracing a range of disciplines, including development and project management, engineering, construction and planning. The team is responsible for the management of all projects that have a significant land and property component, including the majority of our flagship projects and commercial property schemes.
All financial support offered through Advantage West Midlands is provided in accordance with State Aid rules.