Consultants appointed by Birmingham City Council to investigate the feasibility of a £1 billion redevelopment of Paradise Circus and the Central Library site warned the project was financially flawed and unlikely to succeed. A blunt report by Jones Lang LaSalle and Gardiner and Theobald was submitted in February 2003, but kept under wraps by the council. The paper has been obtained by The Birmingham Post under the Freedom of Information Act, although council lawyers censored what they considered sensitive parts of the document. Officials said the details were commercially sensitive and it would not be in the public interest to release them. The 32-page report cast doubt on the likelihood of attracting private sector partners to finance what would be one of the largest urban redevelopment schemes in the country and drew a comparison with Canary Wharf in London, which went into administration after completion. The report states that it would be "very difficult, if not impossible" to obtain private sector finance unless the council was prepared either to put more of its own money into the project or re-design the scheme on a more commercial basis. Tory Cabinet regeneration spokesman Ken Hardeman, who came into office in June 2004, was unaware that the document existed but sought to dismiss its findings. Coun Hardeman ( Con Brandwood) insisted events had moved on since 2003 and the council was now confident of putting together a package with development partner Argent to redevelop "the horrible eyesore" of Paradise Circus and Paradise Forum. He confirmed that Argent is examining two possibilities for replacing the Central Library - building a new library on the Paradise Circus site or utilising Baskerville House. Coun Nigel Dawkins (Con Bournville), who headed a scrutiny committee investigation into Paradise Circus in the spring of 2004, was also surprised by the existence of the consultants' report. "We asked for all paperwork connected with Paradise Circus and this was never given to us," he said. Jones Lang LaSalle and Gardiner and Theobald warned: "There are only a handful of players internationally with the financial credentials and expertise to deliver a scheme like this. There will be even fewer that will pioneer in Birmingham. "We have significant doubts as to whether it will be possible to obtain private sector finance for the project and transfer risk relating to upfront expenditure and ongoing development to the private sector." The consultants pointed out that the scheme would be operating at the margins of profitability. If initial expenditure were to rise by ten per cent or projected land receipts fall by ten per cent the scheme would be in deficit. The report concludes: "We therefore consider it will be extremely difficult to obtain a development partner to finance this project. "Given the nature of the project, there would be a large reliance on developer equity to fund upfront costs rather than debt finance. These upfront costs are very substantial due to the specific technical constraints, for instance building over the Queensway Tunnel, and the need for extensive demolitions and third party land acquisitions." Announced in December 2000 by the council's then Labour administration, the redevelopment of Paradise Circus was an ambitious attempt to build high-rise quality office accommodation while moving the library to Eastside. An estimate by the council that the sale of the land would release £50 million towards the cost of a new library turned out to be optimistic. Planners now accept that the redevelopment of Paradise Circus is unlikely to result in any upfront profit for the council. | 
