New £60m Wolverhampton college will have at least 600 students
A new construction college being built at an old brewery will have at least 600 students, it has been revealed.
The Springfield Brewery in Wolverhampton will become the £60 million West Midlands Construction University Technical College next year.
College chiefs have revealed around 600 students will be based at the site, with just a handful of places now remaining.
A planning application is being submitted in the coming weeks before building can start.
Bosses are planning for the coming academic year in September, when students will be based at the old Northicote School until the new development is complete in 2016.
Principal Tom MacDonald said: "We have got strong numbers of students now and the build programme is still on course to start around the middle of the year."
He added: "This is an exciting time and everything is starting to come together now."
The city's university is sponsoring the new UTC along with the Construction Industry Training Board (CITB). And the university also plans to relocate its own School of Architecture and the Built Environment there.
An agreement to buy the 12-acre land, which has been vacant since 1991 when the Mitchells and Butler brewery closed, has been reached and can be finalised once planning permission has been granted.
Meanwhile a couple who run a micro brewery based at the site are now looking for a new home.
The brewery off Cannock Road was built back in 1873 but closed down in 1991 after being badly damaged in a major fire in 2004.
Since 2011 the Brough's Brewery has operated from the building, and married couple Andy and Michelle Brough had hoped they would be able to stay.
But now they have been told they must move, so they are now looking for a new base.
They had leased part of the Springfield building for the last four years - and even hoped to take over one of the neighbouring units to create a bar.
But education bosses have decided it would not be suitable to have a brewery so close to a college attended by teenagers.
Mrs Brough said: "What is being built there is a fantastic thing for the city. The site has been mostly derelict for a long time and anything that will bring it back into use and help the city is a great thing.
"We are disappointed that we will not be a part of it though. We are hoping to find somewhere else in the Wolverhampton area but we haven't got an alternative yet.
"We haven't been given a date we need to move out."
