25/09/08 - £7.5 million Martial Arts Centre opens in Birmingham
The official opening of the state of the art Gymnastics and Martial Arts Centre in Perry Barr, Birmingham took place this week.
Guest speakers included Councillor Mike Whitby – Leader of Birmingham City Council, Bruno Grandi, President of the Federation of International Gymnastics and Councillor Ray Hassall, Cabinet member for Leisure, Sport and Culture who did the honors of opening the centre.
The guests watched in admiration as they got the chance to see the facilities being used with impressive performances of all of the gymnastic disciplines and aikido.
The striking building was constructed by Midlands based Thomas Vale Construction in partnership with Birmingham City Council who funded the £7.5 million project from the sale of Birmingham Sports Centre.
"Thomas Vale takes immense pride from our involvement in the state of the art GMAC building undertaken via the Birmingham Construction Partnership. Attending the Opening ceremony and seeing the Gymnastics and Martial Arts displays brings a reality to over 12 months of planning and hard effort by the entire team involved. It is a facility that will serve the City of Birmingham well for a long time to come for both local people wishing to participate and elite performers alike"
Ken Jones, Partnership Director, Thomas Vale Construction
The GMAC which accommodates for all age ranges and abilities has an 1840 sq m gymnastic training hall with two floor areas and a range of fixed apparatus and tumble runs. It also has a large seating area for up to 400 people and three martial arts areas to provide for aikido, judo, karate, ju-jitsu, kendo and Olympic wrestling.
Blending in perfectly with its park environment the building has a “green” living roof to encourage birds and wildlife together with sympathetic landscaping in terms of grass banks and planting of shrubs and trees.
The centre will be used by both the local community as well elite performers, potentially becoming a training centre for Olympians the London 2012 Olympics.
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