A team of specialists are to be appointed by the Council to prepare the Civic Centre for its new life.
Earlier this year the Council agreed to buy back the Civic Centre from Urban Splash and unveiled exciting proposals to create a major new campus in the Civic Centre focussed on delivering future green and blue jobs and skills.
A decision has been signed today authorising the appointment of a consultant team with the expertise and capacity to progress the detailed, technical surveys and design work required to prepare the Civic Centre for its new life.
City College Plymouth is looking to expand its offer and building on its success in attracting strong engineering and construction partnerships is looking for a new central location for a skills hub.
The proposals for a new city centre campus could see up to 60 courses being delivered, focussing on the city’s emerging marine sector – known as the blue sector – as well as a host of programmes in the environment – the green sector. Up to 2,000 extra people, from school leavers to adult learners, could be learning new skills within the transformed lower floors of the Civic.
Cabinet Member for Finance, Councillor Mark Lowry, said:
“We have committed to a new life for the Civic Centre and it is a priority for us – not just to build confidence in the wider city centre – but to make sure City College Plymouth have a central location to deliver the next generation of skilled workers for our city’s key industries.
“We need to deploy consultants with serious expertise to design and manage repair work as well re-clad the building. replace the façade and get the ground floors ready for fit out and occupation by City College Plymouth.
“We need to do this to secure the campus, keep the public funding already secured for the Civic Centre and to maximise our ability to secure other public funding which is required for the project.”
Contractors are expected to be on site at the end of next month to complete the internal strip out works. This is expected to continue into the new year.
The total cost of employing a full design team to design and manage the works is estimated to be £2.6 million over the next few years.