Birmingham University’s £1B property development programme has taken another leap forward.

The university has announced the five practices chosen for its multidisciplinary design services framework.

BDP, Sheppard Robson Architects, ADP, Associated Architects and Glancy Nicholls Architects have been selected for a 10-year period. They will work on a £700M development pipeline in addition to more than £300M of development work already completed, the Architects Journal reported.

But the big prize for commercial real estate is progress on the £300M Birmingham Life Sciences Park. Work on-site was supposed to start in January but nothing happened at the 9.9-acre university-owned site at Selly Oak.

GVA was appointed to advise on the selection of a development partner in October 2018. The university said then that 580K SF of state-of-the-art facilities would be developed.

“The procurement process is ongoing but we have nothing additional to report at the moment,” Birmingham Life Sciences Park Director of Strategy and Operations Steve Taylor told Bisnow.

Avison Young, which bought GVA, said it expected to be able to say more in March.

The park could be appealing for occupiers. Proximity to a number of medical and learning facilities — including the University of Birmingham campus, Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Birmingham Women’s Hospital and the Institute of Translational Medicine — will create an opportunity for businesses to harness the power of the city’s health and translational research infrastructure.

Bruntwood SciTech is the dominant player in the city’s science property sector, and Bruntwood has previously indicated it is interested in a development role at the Life Sciences Park.