You are here: MCD Property > Press Releases > Regeneration is just a way of life for MCD Developments.MCD Press:MIDLANDS INSIDER Regeneration is just a way of life for MCD Developments. For decades the property sector thought regeneration meant talking green and acting mean, but in todays environmentally conscious world that mindset is fading fast. Only developers prepared and willing to embrace the partnership approach to creating sustainable communities will prosper in the new climate. Birmingham-based MCD has now become a major national player in the regeneration sector, currently investing some £300 million into complex mixed-use schemes on brownfield sites in its home city and as far away as Bedford, Essex, Bristol and Norwich.

Chief executive Steven Byrne has spent some 20 years in the regeneration game and is far too literate and passionate to pay only lip service to it, but welcomes the new approach to regeneration with evident enthusiasm. Previously, developers tried to adapt traditional design practices and procurement methods to regeneration schemes, but that can never work,he says.We ignore previous perceptions, and work backwards from our partners goals. If they want a scheme allowing people to live, work and play on site, thats what we deliver, not an apartment block with a couple of shops added on. We listen, design and deliver a product that works for the market.

Regeneration is also nothing new to MCD, which played a lead role in the renaissance of Birmingham city centre during the 1990s. It was one of the first developers to note the potential of the now fashionable canal network, with major award-winning residential schemes, including King Edwards Wharf and Islington Gates. Both won major awards from British Waterways for their contribution to regeneration, and also recently received several Gold Green Apple awards from the Green Organisation, which is supported by the Environment Agency. Steven says the contemporary approach to regeneration is exemplified by MCDs latest venture; a£110 million mixed-use scheme on the site of Coventrys City College.

The Coventry scheme will include a 10-storey building, with 70,000 sq ft of Grade A offices, plus leisure and retail space, and more than 500 apartments from studios to luxurious penthouses in adjacent blocks of varying sizes. The heart of the development will be the present Art Deco style auditorium, refurbished and enhanced by a new public piazza and performance area.

Steven says the latter aspect reflects the best practice approach to regeneration. For years, planners and developers regarded everything that existed before they arrived as something to be demolished; whether it was a Roman ruin in Chester, or a redundant riverside warehouse in Bristol. We take the opposite view, and see how much can be retained. When we finish the Coventry scheme, the auditorium will take its rightful place at the heart of the scheme and be an asset that everyone can feel proud of.

The new awareness also means that developers in tune with the times are introducing features which would have been the stuff of fantasy only a few years ago. We have asked our architects, BBLB, to design the commercial building at Coventry to achieve a BREEAM excellent rating, which will be one of the first outside of London. We will build the office space around a glass-roofed atrium, allowing natural light and ventilation to flood in, and include the first ground source heat pump built on a commercial scale in the UK, among other sustainable building features, such as rainwater harvesting. Unlike some developers, these eco-friendly features arena just pandering to a latest trend but are substantial and offer very real tangible benefits to the occupier.

Sustainable development must equally factor in the needs of the residents to create a genuine 24/7 environment.

Old-style mixed-use schemes failed to get the balance right between day and night-time users, but we think weve got the blend right in Coventry, and our other projects,” suggests Steven.

MCDs conversion of Brindley House, the 1970s concrete tower block once dubbed Birminghams ugliest building, also highlights the new approach to regeneration. Newhall Street is a great location, and the apartments are proving very popular, but we tried to think about more than just the physical building, recalls Steven. Brindley House also offers the first residents car pool scheme in the city and a coffee lounge where residents can get a sense of community.

Derwent Foundry provides another example of MCDs diverse approach to Urban Regeneration. The conversion of this Grade II former foundry, in the heart of Birminghams Jewellery Quarter, is designed around the creation of two new courtyards and offers 98 one and two bed apartments and over 9,000 sq ft of commercial space.

Steven believes that fine-tuning of the design and landscaping of all MCDs mixed-use schemes provides the finishing touch. We genuinely want to make our schemes add something a little special for the long term. We arent a developer which just finished a project and walks away. Our schemes have to stand the test of time.