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The building currently home to Snobs nightclub and Athens Greek restaurant is to be transformed into a hotel, restaurant and apartments.

Built more than 40 years ago as city’s first ever pre-cast concrete building, the former HSBC Building in Paradise Street will receive a £16 million revamp.

Planning permission has been granted the scheme which will create 100 new jobs, including at least 50 for young, unemployed people.

Known as the Beneficial Building, the seven-storey site was the first pre-cast concrete building in Birmingham but has been largely vacant for years after its owners fell into administration in 2008.

Now work will begin in spring to transform the building into a new 137-bedroom hotel, 53 serviced apartments and a new café/restaurant created.

The building is surrounded by scaffolding to protect people from unsafe cladding panels.

The scheme is the first for developer Anthony McCourt of Court Collaboration since leaving his post at The Cube last year.

Mr McCourt, 30, said he has initial agreements with hotel/apartment operators and a new café and restaurant – although they were still being finalised – and he is also in talks with the managers of Snobs, Athens Greek restaurant and take-away Top Nosh about the future of the building.

He said: “I always walked past this building looking at its state and thinking ‘what a shame’, as it is so close to the entrance of the city at Queensway and the Town Hall. So after some hard work, I found an opportunity to acquire it and bring it back to life.”

“This is a 100 per cent pre-let development. In the end it will create 100 jobs – half of which will be young, unemployed people – not to mention the construction jobs along the way,” he added.

“It is development in Birmingham with a conscience and doing something that has never been harder to do, which is to get a pre-let funded scheme on site.”

Originally the quarters of HSBC bank in Birmingham, the building was more recently let as mixed offices with a number of professional service firms.