Vinci wins £100m Blackpool office

Vinci has landed a £100m office block that will house 3,000 civil servants.

Blackpool Council and development partner Muse awarded the contract for the 215,000 sq ft, seven-storey building, which is part of their £350m redevelopment of Blackpool town centre.

The building work began this week and is due for completion in March 2025.

The office has been designed by architects Make to BREEAM Excellent standard. It will feature high levels of insulation and include air-source heat pumps for heating and cooling, the council said in a statement.

It is part of the wider Talbot Gateway regeneration, which includes a new tram interchange at Blackpool North Station being delivered by Sisk that is currently nearing completion. A new Holiday Inn, built by Robertson, is due to open later this year.

Blackpool Council leader Lynn Williams said: “Throughout the pandemic we were determined to push on with our regeneration of Blackpool and it is really exciting to see so much of our vision for the future coming to fruition.

“This physical generation for the future of our town is critical, but most importantly it means more jobs for local people and more money in local people’s pockets through a huge increase in footfall and spend in our town centre.”

Vinci Building managing director Gary Bowker said: “Low energy and low carbon design and material choice has been at the heart of decision-making and this will result in a truly energy-efficient, low-carbon building that we can all be proud of. It has been a real team effort through the preconstruction phase, and we look forward to this continuing on to site.”

Muse, which is Morgan Sindall’s development arm, has previously worked with Blackpool Council on a number of other schemes, including a council office block, a Sainsbury’s supermarket and public realm.