The Challenge:
The site was acquired by Kier Property in 2013 following conversations with a cinema brand, who wanted to take an 8-screen multiplex in addition to the five ground floor food and beverage operators beneath the cinema. However, at a critical point in the scheme, the client made the decision to not proceed with the development.
We also needed to gain planning consent for the project and engage with the local community throughout the planning application.
The Solution:
Due to our depth of contacts in the leisure market and the quality of the scheme we had offers from three other cinema operators and proceeded with The Light Cinema as the anchor tenant for the 64,500 sq.ft. cinema and leisure element of the scheme.
The site was designed to make the best of the public realm and canalside location and a thorough planning application process saw the scheme gain planning consent in 2014. We engaged with the local community throughout the planning application and undertook a two-day consultation event in the New Art gallery that saw over 300 positive responses in support of the scheme. The planners were complimentary about the planning application and the way we approched the stakeholder engagement. We also engaged with Walsall College, Job Centre Plus and the Black Country LEP to keep them up-to-date on the project and the opportunities for jobs and new business.
The Impact:
The Light bring fresh thinking to cinema operation and will bring added value to the community generating approximately 230 jobs. All of the ground floor units were let before practical completion of the scheme occurred. The restaurant line up of TGI Fridays, Chiquitos, Hungry Horse, Pizza Express and Bella Italia were very supportive of the scheme and the way it has been delivered.
View more projects
Every project we deliver is an opportunity for us to bring our unique thinking to solve problems, innovate and collaborate with our clients and beyond.
Butlin’s Splash, Bognor Regis
Building a £40m state of the art swimming pool and leisure complex within the existing Butlin’s resort in Bognor Regis, West Sussex.
Trago Mills
Developing the first site outside Devon and Cornwall for Trago Mills, an independent, family owned and run discount leisure retailer. Bringing much needed employment to the area it includes 11 retail units, external sales area, café, garden centre, goods yard, ice cream stall, bandstand, adventure dome and model railway.
St Sidwells Point Leisure Centre
Creating the UK’s first Passivhaus standard ultra-low carbon leisure centre, designed to save up to 70% on annual energy costs.
Aerospace Bristol
Creating a new £19m aviation museum showcasing the role played by the Bristol site in Britain’s aviation history, including a hangar to house the last Concorde ever to fly, restoring a Grade 1 listed First World War hangar to create an exhibition space
Emergency bridge replacement at Yoxall Waste Water Treatment works
Kier Utilities replace failing bridge in record time to allow crucial asset to remain functional.
5 Pancras Square
One of the most sustainable mixed-use building in the country and winner of the Prime Minister’s Better Public Building award.
Kier Highways Area 9 Asset Support
Re-waterproofing and resurfacing the Gravelly Hill Interchange, the main link between the Spaghetti Junction on the M6 and the centre of Birmingham, developing a customer led delivery model, challenging the norm and changing working practices to meet customer needs.
Everards Meadows Phase 1A
Creating a vibrant destination in Leicestershire, incorporating a new cycle centre and cafe as well as site-wide green infrastructure.
Storyhouse
Developing Chester's largest and most ambitious ever creative project, working in a restricted city centre location, adapting the programme when a Roman building was discovered on site, restoring and revitalising a Grade II Listed building, creating new cultural spaces and receiving the Arts Council's highest ever score for a building.
Everards Meadows Phase 1B
Working collaboratively with Everards to regenerate land previously occupied by their brewing facilities, for the benefit of the people of Leicestershire.
Cheltenham Racecourse Redevelopment
Delivering a new 6,500-capacity 5 ½ storey grandstand at one Britain’s most iconic racecourses.
North Sea Observatory
A unique purpose-built marine observatory on the Lincolnshire coastline.
Aberdeen Music Hall
Restoring, renovating and extending this prestigious Grade A listed performing arts building, utilising building conservation techniques whilst internally upgrading the interiors and finishes to a high quality and installing new, modern building services and a/v equipment throughout.
Reading Gateway
Identifying this 20.5 acre site in Reading as a strategic development opportunity, delivering a retail and leisure scheme including new homes, a hotel, retail space, car showrooms and industrial units, trailing new innovations and generating 263 jobs and £138m of social value.
FA Parklife
As part of the Football Association’s master-plan to build new football facilities in 30 cities by 2020, Kier have successfully delivered four all-purpose football hubs using state of the art 3G artificial grass at key grass-root areas across Liverpool.
Elliott’s Field Retail Park Phase 2
Redeveloping a brownfield site to construct a new carbon neutral shopping park, creating the world’s first multi-let retail asset to achieve a BREEAM Outstanding rating.
The Aperture
The Aperture is the first phase of residential buildings on the Greenwich Peninsula. This five storey building comprises of a restaurant and deli on the ground floor, day nursery on the first floor, estate management and a community centre on the second/third floors with a gym on the remaining floors.
Stowlawn Primary School
Procured through the Scape National Minor Works Framework, this scheme involved the construction of a new primary school provision at the existing Stowlawn Primary School in Bilston, Wolverhampton. Unique to this project was the building’s existing Passivhaus principals and bespoke brickwork façade.
Hampton by Hilton, Bristol Airport
The construction of a hotel consisting of 201 bedrooms over four floors, utilising significant offsite manufacture.
Strategic Development Control Plan, Capital and Estates & Sustainability Programmes
Kier successfully delivered a programme of 23 projects across two strategic Trusts estates which included MRI, Renal, Pathology, Laminar flow Theatre, Theatre Recovery, Paediatric assessment, A & E, Wards A,B,C & D, Chemotherapy, Catering, Fire Protection Works & Orthodontics.
Spring Vale Primary School
Procured through the Scape National Minor Works Framework, this extension and remodelling project has increased the School’s capacity whilst improving their Ofsted rating from ‘Good’ to ‘Outstanding’.
Sheffield North Active
Transforming a tired council facility into a modern new leisure centre in the north of Sheffield, adhering to Sport England guidelines and taking on board local concerns, introducing a bold exterior design and keeping to tight deadlines.
Glasgow Fort
Constructing a new retail unit that included remodelling existing car parks, a major re-alignment of the existing spine road - including removal of roundabouts - significant public utility services diversions and installation of toucan crossings.
Walsall Waterfront Leisure
Completing the penultimate phase of the £65m waterfront development, taking it through the planning process, regenerating over 17 acres in Walsall including The Light Cinema and popular national restaurant chains, making the most of a canalised location and engaging with the local community.
Watford Riverwell
Delivering the £450m Watford Riverwell as a 15-20 year joint venture with Watford Borough Council, which involves regenerating 70 acres of land in West Watford to create residential, office, retail, leisure, industrial and hotel space.
Thames Lodge, St Bernard's Campus
Kier have been working in partnership with West London Mental Health NHS Trust since 2003.
Princes Gate Retail Park
Creating a new retail and leisure heart for the town comprising 23 shops, restaurants and bars, together with a multi-screen Empire cinema, 60 bed Premier Inn hotel and a 345 space car park.
National Transport Design Centre
The UK – and Coventry as a city - is well-established as a leader in automotive, aerospace, rail and marine design. Coventry University’s National Transport Design Centre (NTDC) aims to boost design innovation in the transport sector and bridge the current shortfall in creative skills.
Motel One
Transforming a derelict building into a 172 bedroom modern boutique hotel, retaining and preserving many historic features uncovered during the work.
Gibraltar Point Visitor Centre
Creating a new visitor centre at this Site of Special Scientific Interest after the previous one was damaged by a tidal surge, ensuring its protection from flooding and its coastal position, incorporating sustainable features and refurbishing an 1800s coastguard building to be used as an exhibition space.
HMP Oakwood
This major project delivered a new generation £200 million self-contained prison complex using pioneering digital and offsite construction methods.
Finlake Leisure Pool
Designing and constructing a new leisure complex within this holiday village on the edge of the Dartmoor National Park in Devon, including toddler and 20m adult swimming pools, Tornado and Twister flume rides, and water playground, gymnasium, other leisure facilities and associated plant and equipment.
Crewe Lifestyle Centre
Creating a viable and affordable facility that brought all Crewe's lifestyle services - pool, gym, sports hall, library, specialist daycare and family service facilities - together under one roof, meeting a diverse range of user needs and building within a constrained town centre site.
Bilston Urban Village
Developing a collection of 2, 3 and 4-bedroom homes, creating a mixed tenure development that will bring 58 homes to the open market along with 20 new affordable homes and supporting a group of local trainees.
Balaam Wood
Kier Living was responsible for creating the revolutionary and award-winning mixed tenure, sustainable and affordable new community in Birmingham. The project delivered a range of house types to appeal to the broadest demographic possible with the aim of giving residents an extra 10% living space.
Oldham Town Hall
Restoring an iconic building, taking part in feasibility studies to decide the best use of the building, working on the project to turn it into a seven-screen cinema with restaurants, coffee shop and retail units, winning multiple industry awards and creating something of huge importance to local people.
Wedge House
Building a striking new build boutique hotel with works comprising the design, construction and fit out of 192 hotel rooms, 4,700m2 Cat A office space and full fit out of three floors of bars and restaurants.
Degree Apprenticeship Centre
Revolutionary in its design, the first Degree Apprenticeship Centre on the Warwick University Campus marks a new stage in the University’s teaching programme. The new three-storey 2,400m² innovative development centre provides a bridge from education to industry.
Muller PL500
Extending Müller’s Private Label plant in Donnington, Telford, to enable the factory to more than double production of some of the nation’s favourite yoghurts from approximately 200 million to 500 million pots a year.
Protolabs, Halesfield 8 Telford
Extending Protolabs’ European Headquarters in Telford by 50,000 sq ft to house an additional 50 CNC machines and 20 injection moulding presses, meeting an increased demand across the automotive, aerospace, medical, electronic and heavy industry sectors.
Ambulatory Care and Acute Diagnostics Building, Heartlands Hospital
University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust appointed Kier through the P22 Framework to deliver a brand-new centre to Heartlands Hospital. The exciting project will bring world-class facilities and house a wide range of health services, caring for circa half-a-million patients each year.
Ponteland School & Leisure Centre
Ponteland School & Leisure Centre features a 420-place primary school and a 1,600-place secondary school, a state-of-the-art leisure centre with swimming pools, aqua play, spa, gym, climbing walls, dance studios, soft play zone, a 3G sports pitch, bar, cafés, library and a new community fire station.
Riverside Ice & Leisure Centre, Chelmsford
New £40 million Leisure Centre in the heart of Chelmsford
A46 Warwick bypass (Area 9 PAD contract)
56% of material was recycled when Kier resurfaced 5.5km of the A46 Warwick bypass dual carriageway. Leading the project on behalf of client National Highways, Kier worked with specialist supply chain partner Aggregate Industries and reduced the project’s carbon footprint by 23%.
Wellness Online Wednesdays
As well as their day-to-day duties and their work as wellbeing ambassadors and qualified Mental Health First Aiders, the wellbeing team for the Birmingham Interim Services contract - Ann Harris, Tracy Smith, Dimple Patel - have worked with Birmingham Mind on a programme of innovative weekly online wellbeing sessions, known as Wellbeing Online Wednesdays.