Business News
The Griffin Report
Birmingham, by common consent, is a city transformed. Developments like HS2 and Curzon street, the extension of tramlines, Arena Central, Grand Central, Paradise, Snow Hill and many more have contributed to its re-birth from a 1970s ugly duckling into a vibrant, cosmopolitan, 21st Century city. Chamberlink’s award-winning columnist Jon Griffin talks to veteran visionary Ian Stringer, from GVA, about the impact of that transformation.
Commercial property veteran Ian Stringer, 35 years at GVA, looks almost wistful. “I wish I was 30 again, starting a career in real estate and commercial property. “Compared to my first decade
here, boy, what a change. In those days we couldn’t wait to go home.” The Birmingham-based regional
services director with the commercial property specialists is reflecting on the extraordinary transformation of Birmingham city centre and its immediate surroundings from 1970s ugly duckling into a vibrant, cosmopolitan, 21st Century city. “I have been in commercial
property since 1983 – looking back with hindsight, Birmingham was a pretty dreadful place to work. There was no life or soul in the city centre, at 5.30pm everybody got out of Birmingham and went home, you definitely didn’t hang around. At weekends, you never came back in for culture, food or drink. Birmingham was a pretty austere place and retail-wise we were down in eighth, ninth, tenth place. In those days we lost part of our customer base from people going to Merry Hill, wealthier shoppers used to go to the likes of Cheltenham or Solihull.”
And then along came the ICC in
the early 1990s, of which no less an architectural authority than Prince Charles once commented: “Choosing my words to be as inoffensive as possible, I thought it was an unmitigated disaster.” But in Ian’s eyes, and other like-
minded visionaries including former Birmingham City Council leader Sir Albert Bore, that “unmitigated disaster” proved the catalyst for transforming Birmingham from a dark, brooding industrial city into the sophisticated modern conurbation of today. “The ICC created a route through
the west side of Birmingham over the canal bridge into Brindleyplace, which was a derelict 27-acre bomb site. “That was the start of it, the first buildings were completed in 1995 and Brindleyplace became the UK exemplar for mixed-use development. We used to get two or three visitors a week from different local authorities or investors or investment funds wanting to see what Brindleyplace was all about.” The ‘former derelict bomb-site’
gave birth to the likes of the NIA, the Sea Life Centre, Water’s Edge
14 CHAMBERLINK December 2017/January 2018
Ian Stringer: “The city used to empty at 5.30pm.”
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