With development manager Argent having submitted a detailed planning application for a third 280K SF office building at Paradise Birmingham, the second phase of the £700M scheme begins.

So will this be another scheme where a big international player makes an investment in Birmingham, to match the first-phase funding partnership with Canada Pension Plan Investment Board agreed in March 2016?

A statement to Bisnow said of the Phase 2 funding: "Hermes will be the funders but may bring a funding partner on later."

The first phase included the 172K SF One Chamberlain Square and the 183K SF Two Chamberlain Square.

The second phase will start with the 280K SF One Centenary Way — where a planning application was submitted 21 December — and will include a further office building, the 140K SF Three Chamberlain Square, and a 250-bedroom, 4-star hotel.

Construction work on One Centenary Way is expected to start in 2019 with enabling and final ground preparation works undertaken in 2018.

The building has been designed by Glenn Howells Architects, who are also master planners for the Paradise development.

They take the wraps off One Centenary Way just days after the topping out of One Chamberlain Square following the letting of an additional 60K SF to PwC.

At 1.8M SF, Paradise will deliver up to 10 new flagship buildings, including offices, shops, bars, cafés, restaurants and the hotel across 17 acres. Demolition of the former Birmingham Conservatoire and Fletcher’s Walk is underway to allow for Phase 2 of the scheme to progress.

The Paradise redevelopment is being brought forward through Paradise Circus Limited Partnership, a private-public joint venture with Birmingham City Council. The private sector funding is being managed by Hermes Investment Management, which partnered with Canada Pension Plan Investment Board on the first phase of the development. Argent is the development manager.

Planning consultants for the scheme are Turley.