Recruitment firm to move into The Public

Controversial arts centre The Public has a new tenant moving in this week, bosses revealed today.

Recruitment consultancy BP Recruitment will move into one of the 'lily pad' offices at the West Bromwich venue on Wednesday.

It will be only the third tenant to move into the £72 million centre.

Linda Saunders, chief executive at the New Street arts centre said discussions were also being held with a further three organisations with a view to them renting office space.

She said: "We have got a new tenant moving in, they are having one of the lily pads which can be hired month to month.

"These are affordable and easy-to-use office spaces. They have got it on a rolling contract which rolls on a month by month basis."

There will be three staff moving in over the summer.

"We are really delighted and are actually talking to two to three other organisations," she added.

"I think they have proved so popular because of the rolling contracts and they are very affordable to somebody who is setting up on a new venture."

The Public has drawn up a new marketing strategy in a bid to target small businesses to set up in the vacant office space.

Renting space on a daily, weekly or even hourly basis are all options now being considered. The lily pads were originally created for new companies or people looking to set up office space or small creative industries.

Other options that are being explored include managed work space for small start-up companies or agile working where people need somewhere they can hire a desk and phone for a few hours at a time.

The centre has recently opened an £800,000 conference suite in a bid to get more people through the doors.

Named after West Bromwich-born Hollywood actress Madeleine Carroll, the suite occupies level two of the building, where refurbishments have now finished.

Transform Sandwell, a partnership between the council, BT and Liberata, is one of the organisations that have taken up the short term lease option, renting two months space at the centre for training.

In April, Breakthrough Marketing, a company of three people, signed a lease to rent one of the lily pads and Major Key Studios, which operates music courses, is also based there.

The announcement of a new tenant comes following controversy at the venue, which is running millions of pounds over budget, and has been the subject of an audit report which revealed it should be mothballed, decommissioned or even demolished.

It has been surrounded by controversy after costs spiralled and it failed to open on time. Sandwell Council has taken over the project after the Arts Council walked away last year, handing the authority a final £3m of funding.