![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/0_image1jpeg.jpg\")
The side of the Gracechurch Shopping Centre car park in Brassington Avenue, Sutton Coldfield<\/p>\nPlans have been submitted for a new racket sports club at the Gracechurch Shopping Centre car park in Sutton ColdfieldThe side of the Gracechurch Shopping Centre car park in Brassington Avenue, Sutton Coldfield<\/p>\n
A new sports club and fitness facility is set to be built atop a Birmingham<\/a> shopping centre car park is planners give the go-ahead.<\/p>\n The owners of the Gracechurch Centre in Sutton Coldfield<\/a> are planning to transform the top of the site\u2019s multi-storey car park into a racket sports arena, with a clubhouse, and fitness club, restaurant area and outdoor terrace.<\/p>\n A planning application reveals plans for four new padel courts, one of the fastest-growing sports in the country, surrounding a tennis court in the middle, to play ‘tennis, padel and pickleball’.<\/p>\n Read more: I visited Sutton’s ‘accidental’ bakery at its first permanent home<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n The padel courts have Perspex walls, used in the game, and are around a third the size of a normal tennis court.<\/p>\n All will be enclosed, with a 5.2-metre high netting so stray balls do not fly off the top of the building into traffic!<\/p>\n The courts would be lit by \u2018low-glare, directional LED lighting systems\u2019, with eight six-metre high poles around the padel courts and eight seven-metre-high poles around the tennis court.<\/p>\n The planning statement says \u2018lighting is only typically required during the winter months and \u2018will be automated to switch off at 10pm\u2019.<\/p>\n Next to the courts will be a health\/fitness club, with changing rooms a \u2018fitness leisure area\u2019, a restaurant area, flexible hot spot workspaces and an outdoor terrace.<\/p>\n An aerial view of the site shows the racket and fitness club on top of the Gracechurch Centre, which includes extending the top floor onto the House of Fraser rooftop, where the fitness club would then go.<\/p>\n And an accompanying document says it would result in the loss of 112 \u2018surplus\u2019 parking spaces in the multi-storey, almost all of floor seven of the car park\u2019s 123 spaces.<\/p>\n Read more: Inside plan to build Sainsbury’s store in pub car park<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n The proposals also states: \u201cLevel 8 has not been accessible to the public since December 2024.\u201d<\/p>\n The centre though has 854 parking bays in total across all its eight floors and a survey in June said in excess of 500 spaces were available at all times.<\/p>\n There are said to be 812 other car parking space sin the town, excluding the station car park for rail users and Wyndley\u2019s car park for swimming and leisure club users.<\/p>\n The new club is expected to create an extra 136 vehicle trips over the course of the day (66 in and 70 out stated).<\/p>\n The plan is to open the racket club come fitness centre seven-days-a-week from 7am to 10pm. It would create up to 15 jobs.<\/p>\n An accompanying planning statement says by PHD architects states: \u201cThe proposed redevelopment of the Gracechurch Centre rooftop into a multifunctional sporting and leisure facility builds upon this regional synergy.<\/p>\n \u201cIt leverages Sutton Coldfield\u2019s strategic location and demographic growth, particularly the rise in young families and active residents seeking high-quality recreational spaces.<\/p>\n \u201cBy enhancing leisure infrastructure within the town centre, the development contributes to the broader vision of a healthier, more connected Greater Birmingham.\u201d<\/p>\n The proposal the Gracechurch Centre owners say is a \u2018forward-thinking investment\u2019 which will transform an \u2018underutilised urban space into a \u2018vibrant hub for leisure, wellbeing, and community engagement\u2019.<\/p>\n![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/0_Gracechurch-Centte-aerial-view.jpg\")
The new racket sports club and fitness centre would be built on top of the Gracechurch Shopping Centre in Sutton Coldfield is Birmingham city planners give the go ahead (Image: Google)<\/p>\n![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/0_Racket-club-plan-for-Gracechurch-Centre.jpg\")
A plan view of the proposed new racket sports club and fitness centre on the top of the Gracechurch Centre in Sutton Coldfield (Image: PHD Architects )<\/p>\n