Cumming Group, under the name of MHBC Cumming, has been crucially instrumental throughout the pandemic lockdowns in ensuring that the Government will open their new regional office Hub in Birmingham next year. Category A works by Wates, as main contractor, was successfully certified on time on 18th November 2020, allowing the Government to then undertake their own Cat B works. The Hub is based at Platform 21, Stephenson Street, a prominent 110,000-sq.-ft. office building adjacent to New Street station, inside the New Street Conservation area. The building, which was previously known as ‘The Charters’, was originally designed for Woolworths in the 1960s, and has now been imaginatively repurposed into a modern new business location for 1,500 civil servants.

Our team was instructed to assume project control in April 2021, liaise with the Government Property Agency and steer the project to practical completion despite delayed extant progress, cost overruns and further pandemic-related delay concerns.

Wates has undertaken a major overhaul of the 10-storey building, which has included an extensive facelift Category A refurbishment to turn the building into one of the first major office complexes people now see when they exit the train station. A key element of the scheme was the switch of the primary elevation and entrance to Stephenson Street, which has necessitated the elevation being stripped back and re-clad to incorporate storey-height windows, as well as extending the top three floors to provide views across New Street and the city.