Willmott Dixon has signed an £18m contract to refurbish the former Lewis’s department store building in Birmingham city centre.
Developer Legal & General Property finally signed up the builder after initially entering into talks with BAM to extend and upgrade its Temple Court building.
Willmott Dixon will start on site shortly building an extra seventh floor to the landmark building, which when finished next July will provide 110,000 sq ft of offices with some of the largest floorplates in the city’s business district at 17,000 sq ft.
This was closed down in 1991 after the company fell into administration since when the complex was rebranded as two separate sections called Temple Court and Priory Court, either side of the Minories Shopping parade.
Tom Williams, senior asset Manager at LGP, said: “We are taking an underinvested asset and creating a truly landmark location that seamlessly blends a contemporary workplace with the building’s historic legacy. The Lewis Building represents a fantastic opportunity for Birmingham’s commercial market and we have already seen considerable interest from some of the larger requirements currently looking to identify space.”
EPR Architects designed the building revamp project
