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Millennium Point, the 500,00sq ft science, education and entertainment centre in Birmingham’s £6bn Eastside regeneration zone is now fully let.

The £114m landmark building opened on time and in budget in September 2001 as the home to Thinktank, Birmingham’s new science museum, an IMAX cinema and mostly educational tenants including UCE Birmingham’s Technology Innovation Centre (tic).

Since then it has attracted high profile commercial tenants including Bucknall Austin, the leading construction and property consultants, and Marketing Birmingham, the destination marketing agency for the city.  It became 98% let in 2006 when the UCE’s Birmingham School of Acting relocated to Millennium Point.

Now Matthew Boulton College, which became a neighbour in 2005 when it moved into its own new building in Eastside, has taken the last 8,000sq ft of available space for its new Creative Arts Centre.

Dr Nick Winterbotham, chief executive of Millennium Point and Thinktank, says: “The arrival of Matthew Boulton College, named after one of the pioneers of Birmingham’s industrial and technological pre-eminence, means we are fully let in only our sixth year of operation.”

Millennium Point is England's largest landmark Millennium Project outside London.  It was designed by Sir Nicholas Grimshaw Associates and was awarded £50 million of Millennium Commission lottery funding and £25.6 million from the European Regional Development Fund. 

Annual footfall has consistently exceeded 1 million and Thinktank now averages 200,000 paying visitors a year, including 70,000 schoolchildren. 

Commercial tenants are pleased too.  Russell Lloyd, partner at Bucknall Austin, says: “This is a great workplace; it's convenient to get to, has good parking and is secure and accessible.  Since moving here from the Westside of Birmingham our employees have increased by a third and, given the regeneration opportunities in Eastside, we are committed to staying at Millennium Point for the foreseeable future.”

With the new Bullring on its doorstep and Eastside development now gathering pace, Millennium Point is confident about its future.  “We are playing an active role in the design and development of the City Park that will run alongside us and have reached agreement with the City Council about a new car park to replace the spaces we will happily lose to grass and trees,” says Dr Winterbotham.