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Urban Regeneration
Coventry City Centre Cultural Gateway (CCCG)
The City Centre Cultural Gateway is located in Coventry city centre, close to Junction 7 of Coventry’s ring road and immediately adjacent to the City Centre South scheme. The site is 10 minutes’ walk from Coventry Railway Station, making Birmingham accessible in 20 minutes and London in less than an hour.
The City Centre Cultural Gateway (CCCG), is the transformation of the former IKEA building in Coventry to become a landmark destination that will be home to nationally significant collections, bringing together multiple partners and investors across creative, cultural and technology sectors to engage local people.
The CCCG provides the opportunity to invest in the development and delivery of a project that will lead the way in cultural regeneration and ultimately realise the huge potential of this truly unique facility. The site will become home to some of the UK’s most significant arts, cultural and heritage items. Space is also available for investor occupiers to establish like-minded business activities as part of this exciting project.
In 2020, IKEA announced the closure of its store in the centre of Coventry. The standalone building spans some 26,000m² of prime city centre space across six floors, with significant on-site parking.
The closure coincided with detailed discussions that were ongoing between Coventry City Council and partners as to the feasibility of developing a Collections Centre of national significance at a city centre location in Coventry.
- In February 2021, Coventry City Council approved the acquisition of the former IKEA building. The resulting project is now known as the City Centre Cultural Gateway and constitutes three phases of activity.
• Phase 1 – involves the conversion of some floors into bespoke facilities for the storage, care and management of nationally significant arts, cultural and heritage collections
• Phase 2 – the Cultural Hub phase is proposed by Coventry University to provide a range of cultural educational, engagement, training and professional development opportunities
• Phase 3 – constitutes ‘shell and core’ works to the remaining floors that will enable future lettings to investor occupiers
The City Centre Cultural Gateway is an exploration space, and this new landmark destination will bring together multiple partners across transport, technology and the creative and cultural sectors.
CCCG will provide a new home for nationally recognised collections managed by Arts Council England, Arts Council Collection, CV Life and the British Council, as well as creating a cultural hub for Coventry University with a range of facilities benefiting students, visitors, and the community.
The University will occupy two floors and house a student gallery, café, library and exhibition space, dance studio, conference area, artists’ studios, post-production filming facilities and a shop to sell students’ artwork, with some of these facilities being accessible to the public.
Key facts
- Located in Coventry city centre, close to Junction 7 of Coventry’s ring road and immediately adjacent to the City Centre South scheme
- 10 minutes’ walk from Coventry Railway Station, making Birmingham accessible in 20 minutes and London in less than an hour
- The site will become home to some of the UK’s most significant arts, cultural and heritage items
- CCCG will provide a new home for nationally recognised collections managed by Arts Council England, Arts Council Collection, CV Life and the British Council, as well as creating a cultural hub for Coventry University with a range of facilities benefiting students, visitors, and the community
Opportunity location
Why invest in Coventry and Warwickshire?
Talent, creativity, connectivity and culture are driving local development across Coventry and Warwickshire – a dynamic region in the UK Midlands.
With a 1,000-year history, we are looking to the future with local development being driven by cutting-edge technology.
Engineering and design expertise, combined with state-of-the-art research, led by the area’s two internationally respected universities, has seen it emerge as a forerunner in the development of the next generation of EV and connected autonomous vehicles. Key developments include plans for a new 530,000m²+ Greenpower Park to include the West Midlands Gigafactory; 37ha of employment land for manufacturing south of MIRA Technology Park; and the UK Battery Industrialisation Centre, a £130m strategic investment in the UK battery supply chain.
Culture and creativity are also proving a strong catalyst for investment. Coventry as the UK City of Culture in 2021 and 2022 has seen a national cultural focus on the city and the visitor economy and the region played a leading role in the 2022 Commonwealth Games.
Coventry and Warwickshire is also home to one of the largest video game development clusters in the UK, employing over 3,000 people, anchored around Leamington Spa, which equates to over 10% of the UK workforce located here and will form a key part of the new Leamington Creative Quarter project.
Insight for investors
- Type of investment sought: Capital investment, investor-occupiers
- Target investor(s): Investor-occupiers, cultural investors
- Value: £150m GDV
- Site size: 2.6 hectares
- Timescale: TBC
- Delivery timescale: TBC
- Planning status: Base scheme planning submitted March 2023