Three Snowhill leads the way in Britain’s second city, reinvesting a redundant site into what has now become part of Birmingham’s premier business district.

Three Snowhill is the largest ever speculative city centre office scheme built outside of London and the third and final development at the Snowhill estate, resulting in over 1,000,000 sq ft of Grade A office space in the city centre.

The Snowhill estate was developed by Ballymore – an industry leader in quality developments, the main contractor was BAM Construction, and global construction consultancy firm Gleeds provided Project Management and Cost Management.

The first two award-winning buildings on the site, One Snowhill (11 storeys high, 263,000 sq ft and completed in 2009) and Two Snowhill (14 storeys, 310,000 sq ft and completed in 2013) were quickly 100% let and are classed as the best office space in Birmingham – home to blue chip tenants including KPMG and Barclays, and UK Headquarters of the UK’s biggest infrastructure investment – HS2.

Three Snowhill, funded by M&G Real Estate, is now the largest of the three buildings, with 420,000 sq ft and 17 storeys of Grade A office space with floorplates of up to 25,000 sq ft. Works started to the £200million scheme in March 2016 and completed in December 2019.

Works had previously commenced on the site back in 2007, when the original plans included a residential tower and a 5-star hotel built over a 5-storey basement. The project reached completion of the basement and the cores were constructed to third-floor level before works were halted in 2008 due to the recession.

Due to the existing structures being in place and the change of use plans to build a Commercial Building, the project team faced a number of technical challenges. Despite this, through collaborative working, the delivery team achieved a shared goal of delivering a London quality office building in the heart of Birmingham. This resulted in the largest ever speculative office building outside of London, which was 70% pre-let before works completed.

The building is now complete, featuring 17 floors of Grade A office space, a full height central atrium, car parking, cycle repair, gym and shower facilities on each floor.

The building is specifically designed to enable agile working, co-working and activity-based working in different environments: whether the tenants need space for conferences, collaboration, relaxation or simply making phone calls. The large, open floorplates are flooded with natural light, creating a contemporary and inspiring working location.

Now, two thirds of the building are let to telecoms giant BT, which took a 20-year lease on the building and will accommodate around 4,000 members of staff.

Three Snowhill is a flagship project in Birmingham’s city centre regeneration and sends a clear message to the rest of the UK on the quality of office space available outside of London. The whole Snowhill estate and most recently Three Snowhill is a game changer for Birmingham and plays a key role in attracting new enterprise into the city and supporting the growth of existing businesses.

Key achievements

• Biggest speculative office block outside of London and a game-changer for Birmingham’s city centre economy and its business district
• Exceptional product resulted in a pre-let for 70% of the building
• Completion within budget of a 420,000 sq ft building and a 1 million sq ft development