A former swimming baths which fell into disrepair is enjoying a new lease of life after a Birmingham group jumped in at the deep end and splashed out £4.5 million to restore the ornate building.

The Birmingham Foundation led the drive to revive the baths’ fortunes with support from major companies including Pertemps and Bucknall Austin, and Midlands Regeneration.

Now the building, which had become a target for vandals following its closure in 1995, has undergone an impressive transformation and is set to become a hub of activity for the local community.

Pertemps Employment Alliance (PEA), which delivers a range of Government Welfare to Work initiatives, became the first new tenants of the state-of-the-art office accommodation in December. The company has moved a team of employment and training advisers from their Washwood Heath office and into the restored baths at Nechells Park Road. Other companies and groups are expected to move in soon.

The building now provides office space, a nursery, and meeting rooms and will be a venue for community events. Funding for the regeneration work was provided by the European Regional Development Fund (£2.2 million), the Heritage Lottery fund (£1million), and Advantage West Midlands (£400,000). Further funding is still being sought by The Birmingham Foundation to complete the transformation, bringing the total cost to around £4.5 million.

Work began in late 2002 and has included retaining the pool area but covering it with a floor to create office space, converting the former viewing gallery into mezzanine-style offices, and converting the men’s changing rooms into more offices. Ornate ironwork and other period features throughout the Victorian building have been retained.

Harvey Mansfield, director of The Birmingham Foundation, said: “The restoration of Nechells Baths is a wonderful example of a public/private partnership that is beneficial to the whole community. It was a new venture for us and we have learned a lot of lessons along the way. We are all very happy at the outcome and I know that the people of Nechells are very pleased with the result and can’t wait to get in there and use it as a community facility.”

He paid tribute to the support of board members, particularly Pertemps’ chairman Tim Watts and the foundation’s chairman, David Bucknall.

“When we first began discussions with Birmingham City Council about the project some years ago, they said we could have the building for a nominal sum but we would have to spend substantial sums to do it up for community use, regeneration and job creation. Tim Watts said Pertemps would be able to help us fulfil some of those requirements. Pertemps Employment Alliance moved into the building in late December and in the first week they put 25 people into employment. That is exactly the sort of result that the ERDF and the council wanted us to achieve.

“Tim has been involved since day one and has been instrumental in the whole project moving forward. He is Birmingham through and through and wants to do something to improve the prospects for employment in the city and offered the services of Pertemps to help us meet the targets required by the ERDF.”

The restored building is owned by The Birmingham Foundation through a company and charity it has established, known as Nechells Regeneration Project. Local schools will be invited to take part in a competition to find a name for the baths that reflects its new role in the community.