Hundreds of Black Country workers headed to futuristic new HQ
Hundreds of workers are to be moved from the Black Country to a multi-million pound new headquarters to be built next to Birmingham Airport.
Construction and services group Interserve aims to bring together staff from its sites across the West Midlands at the new office block from early in 2018.
Around 1,200 people will work at the site after moving from four offices at West Bromwich, Dudley, Erdington, Redditch and the company's RMD Kwikform business at Aldridge.
No one is expected to lose their job as a result of the move.
The Berkshire-based group, which built the Jaguar Land Rover engine factory in Wolverhampton and is working on the £13.5m business school for the University of Wolverhampton, has its construction base in Birmingham and nearly 400 support services and engineering staff at the Intersection House office block in West Bromwich, as well as the 120 at RMD Kwikform's two sites in Aldridge.
After its £250 million takeover of office cleaners Initial Services last year, Interserve also has around 100 Initial staff working at Castlegate Park in Dudley who will also be part of the move.
But it will not affect the 600 laundry, security, maintenance, catering and cleaning staff who work for Interserve at Russell's Hall Hospital in Dudley.
Interserve has been given planning permission to demolish an unoccupied four-storey office block at a site next to Birmingham International Airport and Birmingham International Railway Station - and replace it with a modern 12,000 square metre, five-story building.
Tim Haywood, Interserve's group finance director and head of sustainability, said: "Interserve has been a feature of the region's economic landscape for many years and we will continue to invest in its future. This new hub not only reaffirms that commitment but is a major step forward towards realising our ambition to create a modern, sustainable and inspirational environment for our people.
"The new building is an opportunity to bring all our business divisions together in one place and we look forward to the project progressing on site in 2015."
He added: "The new images show how the design of the building is evolving to reflect the changing face of Interserve and the company's commitment to sustainability. This new hub will be more cost effective than the less efficient buildings our people will be vacating. The co-location of staff will enable our operations and support functions to work better together, while the site's location close to major transport links will help us to reduce travel costs and emissions."
The building is designed by architects Sheppard Robson and construction work is set to start in January 2016 following the completion of enabling works which are currently underway, with completion expected in early 2018.
It will be big enough to accommodate 1,600 employees, will also include underground and surface level car-parking for 450 vehicles.
The project received planning permission from Solihull Council earlier this year and is one of the flagship developments within the UK Central regional development programme.
