First look: Fly-thru video for £150m Resorts World Birmingham

One of the UK's largest leisure projects finally got off the drawing board this week when construction started at the £150m Resorts World project at the NEC in Birmingham.

All eyes are firmly on the project which will see a 538,000 sq ft, seven-storey all singing & dancing leisure and entertainment complex at the NEC site coming out of the ground over the next two years. 

Genting Casinos UK will own and asset manage the scheme which will naturally include a casino (how could it not?!), a four star hotel and spa, 11-screen cinema, conference centre, and rather surprisingly, a 45-store designer outlet centre. This latter element appears to have escaped under the radar in the national press thus far, but I think this will help be a huge draw to the project. With the uber-successful Bicester Village outlet centre a reasonable drive away down the M40 - Birmingham will hope to replicate its success.

PricewaterhouseCooper's economic assessment of Resorts World Birmingham says that the project will generate an eye-watering £58m in GVA (gross added value) during the construction phase and £32.8m GVA to the regional economy when operational - not bad.

And with the growth in the leisure sector becoming the key to reviving regeneration schemes across the country, Birmingham should feel rather satisfied that it has managed to net the first Resorts World brand in Europe - joining other destinations in Sentosa, Singapore, Manila, New York and Kuala Lumpur.

 

Roll on 2015 when the doors will open for the first time...