COVER STORY: Millennium Point
Birmingham's Millennium Point was the landmark millennium project for the Midlands. Now, two and a half years after opening, the project is in crisis. Claire Greenshields assesses whether the £3114 million scheme has any future read on....
Point of no return?
Birmingham's Millennium Point was the landmark millennium project for the Midlands. Now, two and a half years after opening, the project is in crisis. Claire Greenshields assesses whether the £3114 million scheme has any future
It all started so well. In September 2001 Birmingham's lottery showpiece was opened on time and on budget. Taking centre stage in the city's new learning quarter, Millennium Point not only provided a new home for the run-down science museum, but housed a state-of-the-art Technology Innovation Centre, the region's only IMAX cinema and the acclaimed University of the First Age.
But less than three years later visitor figures are pitiful and many question whether the building can remain open. The gloves are off as critics challenge the location, content and ethos of a project that has simply failed to draw in the crowds.
The latest victim of poor footfall was Millennium Point's 380-seat IMAX cinema. Despite its 50 ft-high screen, audiences to many of its 3D films could be counted on one hand. Having chalked up a £3600,000 annual debt, by the end of last year operator Cinegrand Birmingham was forced into liquidation.
The news cost more than dented egos. More than 20 people lost their jobs and, as Cinegrand's biggest creditor, Millennium Point Trust is out of pocket by £3100,000.
Stephen Swaden, partner at liquidator Leonard Curtis, says: "The set-up costs were substantial and the trading results, in spite of a heavy marketing spend, insufficient. It is said the location itself is not very attractive to the locals and that visitor levels are poor. The staff have been paid off but it is doubtful whether we will be able to achieve much of a return for any of the creditors."
Dubbed by some as cinema's white elephant, the IMAX format is costly and, despite looking impressive, offers a limited catalogue of films. The Hollywood blockbusters that draw in Birmingham's biggest crowds were few and far between.
Millennium Point's chief executive, Stewart Dobson, says: "We tried to work with Cinegrand but in the end the operation failed. I think they underestimated the difficulty of their task."
He adds: "We're keen to reopen the theatre within the next few months and are in negotiations with IMAX Corporation to allow us to show a greater variety of films. Using it as a showcase for Bollywood movies is just one idea, but I'm also keen to use the space to generate other income streams such as corporate hospitality."
Sir Michael Lyons, the former chief executive of Birmingham City Council who headed the authority when the bid went in to build Millennium Point, says: "It's time to do whatever it takes to get people in, be it showing Finding Nemo on a Saturday and cult classics on a Thursday night. There aren't any specialist cinemas in Birmingham and maybe we can go back to our original idea of creating a regional film theatre."
But whatever the package, the cinema's success, particularly during the day, will greatly depend on queues generated by Thinktank.
And that's where Millennium Point's real problem lies. Generating queues has proved a real problem for what was hailed one of the country's premier science attractions. In its first year the museum welcomed 230,000 visitors, 70,000 short of target. The following year's revised projection of 250,000 was missed by 90,000, forcing Thinktank to set the latest more conservative goal of just 180,000.
At a cost of £350m, Thinktank became the new home of Birmingham's science museum. As well as taking a third of the old collection on trust, millions of pounds was spent on fitting new exhibits and finding more interactive ways of bringing science to life.
Visitors are taken on a tour of Birmingham's past, present and future, with the opportunity to experience everything from the world's oldest steam engine through to Spitfires and Jaguar production line robots.
But however much time, money and imagination has gone into the concept, something's missing. Thinktank attracts fewer visitors than its predecessor and has been forced to put in place a major cost-cutting programme.
Of the £33.5m a year budget, £31.5m is spent on property costs, including rent and service charges paid to Millennium Point Trust. Around £31.2m goes on employees, with the remainder covering expenses such as the repair and maintenance of exhibits.
On the income side, only around £3750,000 a year comes through the turnstiles. Money generated through fundraising, the shop, cafx8e and events suite totals around £3600,000, with the remainder taken from the public purse.
An ongoing funding arrangement was made with the council in 1999, intended to reflect the same support offered to the old science museum at the time it closed - £31.4m.
Given Thinktank's failure to draw in the crowds, many question whether Birmingham's taxpayer is now getting value for money. After all, few people in the city seem to know where or even what it is.
Thinktank Trust chairman Carl Rice admits location has been a concern. "People expect visitor attractions to be smack in the middle of the city, not a ten or 15 minute walk away. We're at the heart of Eastside's regeneration and it could take another three or four years before the area comes into its own."
Dobson promises to improve signage, but it will have little impact on visitor numbers if people don't know what they're travelling to.
"Up to now we've not had as big a marketing budget as we'd have liked," says Rice. "But we're competing with a host of different attractions and will soon recruit a marketing expert. Thinktank is attracting people from the immediate catchment area, but we need to move out into the likes of Worcestershire and Shropshire promoting it as the Midlands' science centre."
Dobson also intends to attract more young people by developing closer relationships with schools and where appropriate giving help on things like transport and admission costs.
Extra investment is another priority. "Museums rely on a programme of continual renewal to keep adding to their appeal," says Rice. He'll fight to bring Concorde to Birmingham as well as any other exhibit that boosts visitor numbers.
The question is where the money comes from. The Millennium Commission recently invited lottery projects to bid for extra funds. But an ambitious proposal to enhance Thinktank was rejected. Rice isn't downhearted. He says: "Funds are available from a range of European and charitable sources, especially for museums forming part of a larger regeneration scheme."
Thinktank has made a bid for £3500,000 to £3550,000 to a Millennium Commission and Wellcome Trust fund geared specifically for science centres. If successful the money will help pay for a new planetarium and educational displays.
Lyons says Thinktank was always intended to improve on what had gone before. He says: "The people of Birmingham have great affection for the old science museum and so they should. But that nostalgic view is often seen through rose-tinted glasses. Although wonderful, the collection was idiosyncratic, wasn't as well laid out as it could have been, didn't pay adequate attention to the early industrial revolution and said nothing about the future of Birmingham.
"On top of all that the building was time-limited and something had to be done."
That may be true, but the over-riding advantage the old museum had over the new is the fact it was free. However much Thinktank invests in marketing and new exhibits, visitors are still faced with a £36.95 charge to get in. Removing the admission fee would boost footfall throughout Millennium Point, but at a cost of £3750,000 a year. "The council already provides a major subsidy," says Rice. "We think it's the responsibility of central government."
Three years ago the government made all so-called national museums free of charge. The impact was staggering. In its last year of paid admission, the Science Museum in London attracted 1.3m visitors, jumping to 3.1m once the charge was dropped.
Anne O'Meara, head of real estate at law firm Hammonds, has advised on Millennium Point since 1996. She says: "Many lottery-funded projects are struggling and I think it was wrong to provide massive capital funding without any revenue support to give schemes a kick-start."
Rice says: "Regional museums like Thinktank are just as important to the country's cultural fabric as those in London and we've joined forces with a number of other centres to lobby for equivalent subsidies. We keep being told there's no available expenditure."
As we creep closer to the next election and struggling lottery-funded projects continue to make headlines, extra funds may soon appear.
A spokesman for the Department for Education and Skills told Insider: "Government is considering its position with regard to Millennium Commission-funded science centres. We hope to reach a decision and let the centres know shortly."
But even if Thinktank turns the corner Millennium Point Trust faces its own financial pressures, namely a £313m loan from Barclays. Interest alone totals £31.1m, and a schedule of capital repayments has been drawn up in line with the project's business plan.
Once established it was intended Millennium Point would use rental income to pay off its debts. But although Dobson says lettings are ahead of expectations, it won't be until 2006/7 before the scheme can become self-supporting.
The building's top two levels incorporate 30,000 sq ft of office suites. They are occupied by surveyor Bucknall Austin, display specialist Normadic Displays, Marketing Birmingham, data collector West Midlands Regional Observatory, council body Birmingham Interaction and Regen WM, promoting best practice in regeneration.
Surveyor Bucknall Austin has 70 staff working in Millennium Point. Chairman David Bucknall says: "This is the best workplace I've ever known. It's convenient to get to, has decent parking and is always secure and accessible."
But take-up elsewhere in Millennium Point leaves much to be desired. The bottom three floors are home to the Hub - 17 units designed to accommodate bars, restaurants, shops and cafes. But rather than being a busy meeting place, the area is as desolate as the Eastside landscape, well short of the footfall needed to attract A1 occupiers.
Pastico cafx8e, the only public food offer in the building, occupies a double unit, educational charity TIDEC has taken space, and a 4,000 sq ft unit is being fitted out for TIC's new interactive media centre.
The remaining 13 units - 10 per cent of Millennium Point's floorspace - represent significant untapped revenue. Dobson says: "It's important this space is let, both in terms of our finances and image. Whatever way you enter the building the first thing you see is empty units." Dobson is offering cut-price opening rents of around £310 per sq ft and some form of rent-free period. He is in discussions with a number of potential tenants.
But the retired council officer is undeterred. Dobson took on the job temporarily when Nigel Craig left in January 2003. Headhunters spent a year trying to secure a permanent replacement, but hit a brick wall. "It's an open secret I was only planning to be here three months", says Dobson. "But I've developed a great enthusiasm and affection for the project. I'll stay until early 2005 by which time I'm confident things will look a good deal different."
But given the scale of Millennium Point's problems it's unlikely to overcome them alone.
Lyons says: "It's in everyone's interest to make Millennium Point a success. There's a tendency with people in Birmingham to be too quick to criticise without realising we sink or swim together. My guess is we'll see help coming from central government, a final handout from the Millennium Commission and some form of assistance from the city council. Unlike when it set up the NEC, the council didn't guarantee the Millennium Point venture. So given it hasn't already taken on huge risk, maybe now is the time for the town hall to be more generous."
For those who believe Millennium Point can benefit Birmingham, help can't come soon enough
Silver lining
Millennium Point's chief executive, Stewart Dobson, says: "People imply Thinktank's problems and the closure of IMAX will mark the end of Millennium Point. They never mention the other elements of the project which have already proved a huge success."
The University of Central England's Technology Innovation Centre (TIC) takes up around a third of Millennium Point. Set up as a centre of excellence for technology-based development and innovation, TIC provides both academic and business support. It encompasses 30 specialist technologies and was rated by the Guardian as one of the top ten engineering facilities in the country.
As well as educating more than 2,000 students, the centre works with both multinational and local SMEs on technology-based training, research and consultation. Assisting in the likes of product development, lean manufacturing and problem solving, TIC has already improved the competitiveness of hundreds of companies.
TIC chief executive Barry Henley says: "We're at the forefront of bringing academia and business together and have more involvement with SMEs than any other university facility. As well as working with the Midlands' mainstream industries we're helping the regional development agency develop key clusters such as digital and creative industries." He adds: "We've just won European funding to take an extra 3,500 sq ft of space for work on interactive TV."
Henley says the recent mud-slinging regarding Millennium Point has had no effect on the centre. "In fact Millennium Point has proved a real help in recruiting students. Visitors tell us they've never seen an engineering facility in such an exciting setting."
Dobson points to another Millennium Point success story, the University of the First Age (UFA). Funded by the Department for Education and Skills, the city council and neighbourhood renewal funds, UFA uses innovative forms of learning and has worked with 10,000 11-14 year olds.
Linda Gregory, director of marketing, research and innovation, says: "We came to Millennium Point to be part of Birmingham's new learning quarter. We've become efficient at providing maps to overcome location difficulties and find when people arrive they're very impressed with the building." UFA is also considering taking extra space at Millennium Point to bring together staff from elsewhere in the city.
Where's the point?
Insider editor Jim Pendrill set off on foot from Birmingham city centre to find out how easy it was to get to Millennium Point. When he got there he found the place deserted.
Much has been made of the difficulty of finding Millennium Point, but on foot at least the building is easy enough to find from Birmingham city centre - as long as you know where to start from.
Just 10 minutes after setting off from outside M&S on Union Street I had arrived at my destination, via some interesting observations. For instance as I passed Moor Street station I was confronted with hordes of shoppers coming out and all turning left to the Bullring - not one turning right in the direction of Millennium Point. If only they would turn right, I muse.
A short while later, having walked down a deserted Albert Street I reach Bartholomew Street, and here things were problematic. The signs for Millennium Point not only became a little less clear, but trying to cross the road proved a major obstacle. I waited for five minutes at the zebra crossing for a driver to stop. When one does I am almost run over by a HGV who hasn't seen me in the outside lane. I get across, just, and around the corner and I reach the Point.
Now admittedly it is a chilly Friday morning in January, but surely that's still no excuse for what greets me - the place is absolutely deserted. Surely a major landmark museum such as this should at least have a steady stream of visitors? Through the desolate lobby area suspicious security guards look me up and down as I venture up to the Thinktank museum.
It is 11am and the museum has been open an hour. I am the sixth visitor and the first under the age of 65. Four members of staff have nothing to do. "Oh, it's usually a little busier at the weekends," says the poor till operator. That may be true, but one has to ask how much longer this can go on.
Getting Eastside on side
If too few Midlanders know what Millennium Point is, even fewer know how to get there.
When the original bid went into the Millennium Commission the council's then chief executive, Sir Michael Lyons, believed it should act as a catalyst for city centre regeneration.
Three years after opening, much of Millennium Point's surroundings still resemble a moonscape and although Masshouse Circus has finally been demolished, the building is out on a limb, marooned from the rest of the city centre.
Sir Michael Lyons isn't surprised the £38bn Eastside programme is taking so long: "It may be another ten years before the project really fulfils its potential, but we were planning ahead and this was our one window of opportunity."
Regional development agency Advantage West Midlands is investing £380m in developing Birmingham's new learning quarter. The regional development agency's director for Birmingham and Solihull, Rosie Paskins, says: "It's a complicated process and is taking time to buy and remediate sites. It will be another couple of years before things really start to take shape."
When they do it's important they attract the necessary footfall, with a cluster of new attractions improving the appeal of the whole area.
Millennium Point is particularly excited by plans to construct a 476 ft wheel at the end of the building. Dubbed Birmingham Gate, the privately-financed project is expected to attract around one million visitors a year and is the brainchild of ROC International chairman Richard Pawley.
His spokeless wheel will accommodate up to 12 people per pod, treated to unrivalled views and a commentary charting the history of Birmingham. Pawley puts his case to the council in March and if approved should be up and running by 2006.
Call for support
Having taken the vision of Millennium Point from inception to delivery and overseen its first two years of operation, former chairman Sir Peter Rigby, has clear views on what needs to happen to secure its future success.
"Millennium Point has always had to stand on its own feet financially once the original funding had been obtained and deployed. Its resources were always limited and any budgets modest so marketing and promotions have never been a central feature of the overall project.
"The capital phase of the project was delivered on time and on budget, and the original content and ideas about learning and science were fully realised and delivered through Millennium Point's various components: Thinktank; the upgrade of Birmingham's original Science Museum; an IMAX cinema; a young people's parliament; and the Technology Innovation Centre.
"As the project unfolded it became an anchor and catalyst for the planned development of Birmingham's Eastside. Unfortunately Millennium Point was placed at the centre of a future building site and for its first two years of operation was difficult to find and access because of poor signage, road closures and insufficient public transport.
"That Millennium Point is here today is in part a tribute to Birmingham City Council's support and key partnership role in the capital phase of the project. Its future success is dependent on the city fully embracing the project and resourcing its promotion and development. This will elevate Millennium Point to a major regional attraction alongside other successful council-managed facilities like the NEC, ICC, NIA and Symphony Hall.
Birmingham has been and will continue to be the main beneficiary of Millennium Point - a centre of excellence for lifelong learning for people of all ages and from all walks of life. It is one of the few successfully delivered millennium landmark projects. I know Birmingham won't let it fail."
Where the money came from
At a cost of £3114m Millennium Point was the biggest millennium project outside London. It was one of 12 Millennium Commission landmark projects, which each received £350m
The Millennium Commission was set up in 1993 by the National Lottery Act. It distributed proceeds from the National Lottery. Unlike the other good causes, the commission was created as a short-life body with a specific aim, namely to fund projects to celebrate the end of the second millennium and the start of the third.
Of the remaining cost, the three big funders of Millennium Point were the European Regional Development Fund (£325.6m), regional development agency Advantage West Midlands (£37.4m), and Barclays Bank (£315m).
The remainder of the cost was found from bank borrowings and private sector sponsors - often pledged at crucial stages in the scheme's development. Millennium Point chairman Sir Peter Rigby - head of Midlands IT firm Specialist Computer Holdings - put more than £31m of his own firm's money into the scheme.
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