Birmingham City Council are "having some phenomenal conversations" about  potential operators for up to 2M SF of leisure floorspace on the city's Smithfield wholesale markets site.

"This is going to be very special and real destination leisure," Birmingham City Council Corporate Director for the Economy Waheed Nazir told Bisnow.

"We're looking for anchors to reposition the wholesale markets site. This is an opportunity to diversity the city centre's offer and the challenge is to blur the lines between retail and leisure. We need to create a city centre that families want to come into, and this site is about a family leisure offer."

Delancey and their partners Oxford Properties, Qatari Diar and APG are going head-to-head with Lendlease to claim preferred developer status for Birmingham's £1B wholesale markets development, CoStar reported.

A decision on a development partner is expected in late autumn which will prepare the path for the £1B scheme delivering on a site well-located for the new Curzon Street HS2 station.