Trebor Developments has completed a four-year European assisted project to build a new home for Birmingham’s Assay Office. The institution has now moved from the Newhall Street headquarters it occupied for almost 140 years.
The 60,000 sq ft development in the heart of the city’s Jewellery Quarter will now enable the Assay Office, originally set up to test the purity of precious metals, to pursue new business streams and generate additional income.
Leading a multi-faceted project team — supported with a £1.47m European Regional Development Fund grant coupled with the financial incentives of the Enterprise Zone — Trebor oversaw the construction of a new base for the Assay Office’s high-security operational divisions. The facility will also include specialist laboratory space, training areas, seminar facilities and a heritage collection open to both the public and the jewellery industry.
“The relocation has taken so much time and resources to plan and implement correctly, and it is testament to the spirit and resilience of the Assay Office team that not only did we achieve this significant milestone on time, we did it without once affecting the service standards and professional delivery our customers have come to rely on us for,” commented the institution’s assay master and chief executive, Stella Layton.
“It is a significant benefit to us to be in such a wonderful, modern and inspiring space, a building that is truly fit for purpose,” she added, “given that the Assay Office has four large divisions, with myriad complexities with regards to relocating equipment and high value goods, this really was no mean feat.
“We are looking forward to the opportunities for new business, service development and continuous improvement that this state-of-the-art facility brings to the Assay Office Birmingham team as well as to existing and future customers too.”
Mark Wright, a partner at Trebor Developments, admitted his company was “truly honoured” to have developed the bespoke facility for one of Birmingham’s oldest institutions. “It has been fascinating to work with an organisation with such a rich heritage, yet one very much with an eye to the future,” he said.
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