City Place opens its doors to the public

A national campaign to attract more young people into the construction industry will see builder and developer Seddon offer a ‘behind the scenes’ tour of the largest commercial development in Chester.

The company is delivering the six-storey, 70,000 sq ft One City Place office building on behalf of Muse Developments and will open the doors to the construction site for one day in March.

Schools, colleges and the general public will be given the opportunity to take a tour of the building site on Friday, March 6, as well as being able to find out more about careers in the industry.

The event is part of Open Doors Weekend, a campaign run by industry bodies Construction Group (UKCG), CITB-ConstructionSkills, The Considerate Constructors Scheme, and the Chartered Institute of Building (CIOB) to showcase the wide range of skills that need to come together to make buildings and infrastructure part of our everyday lives.

Due for completion in November 2015, One City Place is part of the wider £200 million scheme to create a central business quarter in Chester, offering prime office space across 3.5 acres.

One City Place is the first of seven buildings in the new business quarter which will also include 200 homes, restaurants and leisure facilities in addition to the recently opened Waitrose supermarket in Boughton. 

Carl Wilde, Regional Director of Seddon, said: “City Place is an incredibly important development for the city, it will create around 3,500 jobs and put Chester on the map as a thriving hub of commercial activity.

“Open Doors will give people the chance to take a sneak peek behind the scenes and find out how a construction site operates and discover what it is like to work in the industry.”

Phil Mayall, development director for Muse Developments, said: “People passing by the train station will see that construction of One City Place is progressing at a rapid pace with the central core now in place. The Open Doors weekend will provide a unique opportunity to get a closer look at what is happening on site at this exciting new office development which will transform the city’s commercial offering.”

There will be tours across the day on Friday, March 6 at 10 am – 11:40 am, 12pm-1:40pm and 2pm-3:40pm.

Those wishing to visit the site need to preregister by visiting the website www.opendoorsweekend.co.uk and selecting City Place from the list of sites available.