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The Bulking project under development in Birmingham will replace the original shopping centre built in the 1960s. At that time, it was the largest shopping centre outside North America, but in recent years it had became dilapidated and outdated. Redevelopment concepts for the site were first suggested during the 1980s when the London and Edinburgh Trust owned the site. In 1995, Hammerson acquired the Bullring, forming The Birmingham Alliance - a partnership with Henderson Global Investors and Land Securities - in 1999.
The Birmingham Alliance was established to undertake, a phased redevelopment of 40 acres in Birmingham's city centre, injecting over 800m into the local economy and creating 8000 jobs. The 500 million Bullring redevelopment is one element of that investment, currently Europe's largest city centre regeneration project.
To be opened in September 2003, the new Bullring will create over 110,000m^sup 2^ of prime retail space. It will bring Selfridges and Debenhams department stores to the city, together with flagship stores for Gap, Next and Benetton. There will also be room for more than 100 other shops, cafes and restaurants.
The design includes public open spaces, streets, walkways, events areas, improved public transport links and 3000 car parking spaces. Outline planning consent for the scheme was achieved in 1998. In July 2000, Sir Robert McAlpine was appointed as design-and-build contractor under a Guaranteed Maximum Price contract. Following partial completion of various enabling works contracts, work began onsite in December 2000. The estimated cost of the project is 270 million.
Bullring will have three main levels of retail, each of which is designed to be directly accessed at grade around the site, varying in level by up to 18m. The upper retail level 7 has additional malls and shop units at 45 to the lower levels, necessitating a change of grid. A two-level car park for 1000 cars and a service road are set at the lowest level 1 with a grid of 15.6 x 7.5m requiring 1.6m deep x 2.0m wide concrete transfer beams at level 3.
At the north high end of the site are two Victorian railway tunnels that service New Street station from the east of the city centre. As the proposed depth of the development adjacent to the tunnels is...