// Hammerson has submitted plans to transform the former John Lewis department store at Birmingham’s Grand Central
// The landlord’s plan proposes a 200,000 sq ft office building, as well as a restaurant and a gym
The former John Lewis store in Birmingham’s Grand Central shopping centre could be turned into a “wellbeing-designed” office according to a newly submitted planning application.
Hammerson, which owns the Birmingham shopping centre, has brought in Make Architects, the firm founded by Ken Shuttleworth, who helped design the Gherkin in London, to draw up fresh plans for the four-storey store, which has been empty for almost three years.
The application went in on Friday and if approved, the 200,000 sq ft office will be turned into modern wellbeing-designed offices called ‘Drum’ because of the shape of the building, accommodating up to 2,000 people.
The plans include a ground-floor restaurant along with a “premium grocery offer”, a gym, a physiotherapy room and changing and storage facilities for cyclists.
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It is the latest example of a retail landlord getting creative to fill vacant units in malls amid the rise in online shopping.
Property bosses accept that there is too much retail space, and the agent Lambert Smith Hampton says nearly half of all shopping centres should be knocked down or repurposed.
Hammerson’s chief development and asset repositioning officer Harry Badham said: “Bosses looked at ways of reusing the store but decided that its location and lack of retail frontage made an office the obvious choice. “Being on top of a railway station makes it very well suited for office and workspace, particularly in a post-pandemic world.”
Badham believes that bringing extra commuters to the office will also benefit Hammerson’s nearby Bullring shopping mall.
“Everything enhances everything else,” he said.
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