Construction work has started on a new £165 million canalside housing development in Birmingham.
Development team Galliard Homes and Apsley House Capital are leading the Soho Wharf scheme in Ladywood where they plan to build more than 750 new houses and apartments across a range of buildings reaching 14 storeys.
More than 100,000 sq ft of brick and corrugated iron industrial buildings and warehousing, which have been largely unoccupied and derelict for years, have already been removed from the brownfield site to make way for the new development.
The finished scheme will have 102 townhouses with two or three bedrooms and 650 one- and two-bedroom apartments, 300 parking spaces and more than 10,000 sq ft of commercial space.
The Soho Wharf site covers 11.6 acres at the corner of Dudley Road and Heath Street South opposite City Hospital.
It will adjoin both the Old Line and Main Line canals, with investment taking place to surface the towpath and improve lighting and green space.
Access to the canal will be via a bridge from the public terraced area and there will be a play area and facilities for young children alongside new pedestrian, cycle and vehicle routes through the site.
The first phase of the development comprising 318 apartments will be available from the end of next year and the whole project is due for completion by 2024.
Galliard Homes and Apsley House Capital are also behind residential schemes The Timber Yard in Southside and St Paul's Quarter in the Jewellery Quarter.
Galliard Homes' chief executive Don O'Sullivan said: "Soho Wharf will transform a redundant brownfield site into a green and welcoming environment for families and wildlife.
"The design maximises the site's two canal frontages and the addition of a new pedestrian bridge over the Old Main Line Canal will improve accessibility to the city centre, just a ten-minute walk away.
"The site is the largest in our Birmingham portfolio and provides Galliard Homes with the opportunity to do what we are best known for in London - regeneration and placemaking, on a grand scale."
