For decades it was and global engineering and design consultancy Atkins but now four acres of land in Birmingham city centre sit surrounded by hoardings and fences, begging for redevelopment.
Step forward property group Vita which is readying itself to tackle its "most ambitious project" ever as it looks to breathe new life into the long-coveted plot next to the city's iconic Mailbox complex.
Less than ten minutes on foot from New Street station and plugged into the tram network via the Broad Street extension, this is as prime as it gets when it comes to city centre living and working.
Now Vita Group is looking to win the hearts and minds of Birmingham's residents and city leaders as it consults on its 'Goods Station' project which would see around 1,000 apartments and a host of other residential and commercial accommodation created across five separate blocks, the tallest of which could hit 49 storeys.
The Cheshire-based group has this week launched a second round of consultation ahead of submitting plans to the city council over the summer, with a view to sticking spaces in the ground on the five-year build project in autumn next year.
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Development director Jon Weston is the man charged with leading what could prove to be a transformational scheme for the site in Holliday Street which has been the subject of activity and applications ever since previous owner
After much toing and froing between developers and council planners and a couple of consents later, government-owned LCR decided to offload the land last year and now Vita is charging full-steam ahead with its mixed-use vision.
"This is the most ambitious project Vita has taken on because of the scale but also it's a great opportunity for us because of the number of our brands we want to put in there," Mr Weson told BusinessLive at the consultation event.
"It's the biggest single scheme we've ever done. It's challenging but also a great opportunity.
"These sites don't come along very often and LCR went through a process for an office scheme but the commercial world has moved on quite considerably since then.
"People still want to live in the city, there's still going to be a massive housing shortage which is only going to get worse so it's about delivering the right accommodation in the right environment.
"Trends change all the time and there have been a lot of lessons learned from the commercial market. The last thing we want to do is deliver something that nobody wants to live in because that way everyone loses."
The name Goods Station is a nod to the location's former use as a railway depot in the 1920s and the project is Vita Group's fourth in Birmingham, a portfolio which includes student flats on the old BBC Pebble Mill site in Edgbaston.
Specific details about this latest scheme have been released this week for the first time.
Vita is planning to construct five separate blocks with the two tallest, at 49 and 44 storeys respectively, housed at the Suffolk Street Queensway end of the site and containing circa 1,000 apartments, most likely for rent only.
On the Holliday Street side, there would be around 750 bedrooms across shared flats and studios for students, under its House of Social brand, while the ground floor would be occupied by a food hall containing around six or seven kitchens for different traders - all in a 29-storey block.
There would be a CitySuites aparthotel and restaurant over 19 storeys next door, containing around 200 units with a mix of one, two or three bedrooms.
Completing the line up is a 13-storey residential scheme at the rear corner of the site containing a mix of social and affordable housing across 200 apartments.
There will also be four individual pieces of public realm (see sketch below) a thoroughfare so the public can amble through from the Mailbox side onto Holliday Street, the rear of the Arena Central office estate and Broad Street.
Mr Weston is unsurprisingly upbeat about the project and its place in the wider city's ever-changing built environment.
"As a company, we're going through a new phase and moving away from standalone buildings and this offers us the opportunity to do something at scale," he concluded.
"This can become a showcase for other potential opportunities in Birmingham, this is not a case of we're building this and then we're done with the city.
"We continue to look at other sites in both Birmingham and the wider Midlands as a whole. Birmingham is a massive market and there are still great opportunities here when you compare it to other cities."
This current phase of consultation runs until April 25. Visit the Goods Station website for more details and sketches and also to leave feedback.
