JLR engine plant wins regeneration award

Jaguar Land Rover's new £500 million engine factory has scooped one of the top awards at the region's biggest property event. more

The site near Wolverhampton was one of 53 projects battling it out for top honours at the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors' (RICS) West Midlands awards 2014.

The huge plant, which will cover 775,000 sq ft of the i54 development site when it is completed next year, will produce the next-generation Ingenium engines for cars like the new Jaguar XE saloon, due to go on sale in 2015.

It scooped the regeneration award at the region's property 'Oscars', hailed for the impact it is having on the regeneration of the wider region.

The judges said: "The new engine production facility has specialist equipment, engine assembly, offices and ancillary facilities.

"Part of the wider i54 regeneration, JLR's new facility is contributing to the area's wider regeneration through the engagement with the local community during the planning process, engagement with local schools and significantly impacting the area's growth prospects through the creation of approximately 1,400 jobs."

It is one of four winners at the awards hosted by architect George Clarke – best known as presenter of Channel 4's Restoration Man - that will now go on to take part in the national RICS awards later this year.

One of the other four - winner of the Design Through Innovation award as well as the evening's blue ribbon project of the year title – was the Library of Birmingham.

Built by Wolverhampton construction group Carillion, the library triumphed over what the 16-strong panel of judges said was an exceptionally strong field of entries.

John Sharpe, chairman of the awards; judging panel, said: "The Library of Birmingham is a more than deserving winner of the RICS West Midlands Awards project of the year 2014. It absolutely embodies the values that the judges look for in a development – it serves its users in a way that few other projects could and since opening, has proven itself at the heart of the community.

"All the judges were unanimous in selecting The Library of Birmingham as project of the year because it is an iconic landmark building which makes a bold statement about Birmingham's confidence in itself as a world city. Designed by a Dutch architect and built under a lasting collaborative partnership agreement between Birmingham City Council and Carillion, it is an impressive building inside and out which provides a fantastic facility for Birmingham and the West Midlands."

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