The  sale of 103 Colmore Row is the story of the Birmingham office market's rise, fall and rise again. And it shows, more clearly than ever the scramble among international investors to buy into the Birmingham scene.

Since NatWest Bank vacated what was then the site of the NatWest tower in the post dot-com boom days of 2003, the site has changed ownership countless times, been on the brink of development and been going absolutely nowhere. Now, two years after the Natwest tower was demolished, and 14 months after BAM won an £80M construction contract, the 224K SF speculative office development scheme has been sold to Tristan Capital Partners.

Tristan Capital Partners, the London-based real estate investment management firm with a European reach and a rising reputation, has acquired Patrizia AG’s interest in the site on behalf of its EPISO 4 opportunity real estate fund.

Patrizia inherited the scheme when it acquired Rockspring Property Investment Managers in 2017. Rockspring had originally backed Sterling Property Ventures when they acquired the site in 2014.

Work on-site at the 26-storey block began late last year. Construction of the concrete core starts next month. The building is scheduled to be completed in the first half of 2021. Fully let the capital value would be north of £170M.

Sterling Property Ventures has been retained as development manager for the project.

At 346 feet high it is the tallest new office building under construction outside London.

Since the NatWest pullout owners have included Omega Land, who sold in 2006 to British Land for £25M. British Land's plans collapsed in the credit crunch and subsequent recession, with their plans abandoned in 2011 and the site sold in 2014.

Colliers International provided Tristan with investment advice; Knight Frank provided occupational advice.

The office space at 103 Colmore Row is being marketed by joint agents Colliers International, Cushman & Wakefield and Knight Frank.