Manchester Update

The closure of the 16th Commonwealth Games by the Queen in September 1998 marked the start of a new stage in Manchester’s long and distinguished history.

During the closing ceremony, watched by a TV audience of around 500 million, the ‘Friendly Games’ were passed on to the people of Manchester. The focal point of the 17th Commonwealth Games will be Sportcity, the biggest sporting development in British history. Central to Sportcity, located in Eastlands in east Manchester, will be the 48,000-capacity Millennium Stadium. Just a mile from the City Centre, the £90 million stadium will transform the City’s landscape with its distinctive circular form and 75 metre-high masts.

The Sports Council has contributed £77 million of the £90 million needed to build the stadium with the outstanding £13 million provided by the City Council. The stadium will be built in two phases: 21,000 covered seats will be ready for the Commonwealth Games athletics events in 2002, and the second phase will involve the expansion of the stadium to a seated capacity of 48,000.

Manchester City Football Club will take over the stadium when the Games have finished if shareholders and fans agree to the move. Sportcity will also include a new £3.5 million Indoor Tennis Initiative, the existing Velodrome and a Sports Academy dedicated to nurturing young sporting talent throughout the North West.

The Academy will be a world class venue, boasting a range of facilities including:
- A large sports hall which can be sub- divided into four stand-alone sports halls.
- A Gymnastics High Performance Centre.
- A Sports Injury and Sports Medicine facility.
- A floodlit all-weather athletics track with indoor athletic facilities.
- A floodlit all-weather sports pitch.
- Accommodation and training facilities for the nation’s elite sports squads.
- A resource centre for local clubs/leagues and regional governing bodies.

Sportcity will be one of numerous Commonwealth Games venues throughout the City. The City Centre will be home to boxing, gymnastics and netball, which will be shared between the G-Mex Centre and Europe’s largest indoor area, the Manchester Evening News Arena. Weightlifting events will be held in the Royal Northern College of Music. A new state-of-the-art aquatics centre, one of the most comprehensive swimming facilities in Europe, being built on Oxford Road, will host the watersport competitions.

Manchester’s accessibility and high quality public transport system were key factors in its successful bid to host the Games. Most visitors will arrive in the city via Manchester airport, which will have a second operational runway by 2002 and will be handling more than 25 million passengers a year. Once in the city people can move easily between all venues using public transport, including the Metrolink tram system.

The Manchester 2002 Commonwealth Games will be more than just a sporting event, it will ensure the longterm regeneration and sustainability of East Manchester and enhance Manchester’s international standing and profile

Following the successful launch of Sharston Green, Sharston Industrial Estate is to be regenerated in a joint venture between Ringway Developments and Manchester City Council. The 44 hectare estate dates back to the 1930s and over the years has played a key role in the development of Wythenshawe. In 1998, it was identified as a major redevelopment opportunity – to create a modern, up-to-date industrial estate through a phased programme of redevelopment and refurbishment, which will see upgrading of existing premises and a number of new-build opportunities.

Ringway Developments is leading the new partnership in the ten-year plan, and is responsible for the coordination of private and public sector funding, which will be invested in the provision of new premises, infrastructure, landscaping and upgrading of the common areas of the estate. Financial support from the government’s Single Regeneration Budget is being made available through the Wythenshawe Partnership and the first tranche of funding has already been approved. Work has just started on improving the estate’s identity by developing better signposting and creating a significant entrance feature on Sharston Road, the estate’s main through-road. From April, the second element of the budget will be released for infrastructure improvements on Sharston Road itself, including new footpaths, signage and lighting.

Ringway’s development manager Charles Perrin says Wythenshawe is undergoing a period of major change, with improvements to the shopping centre, new housing, improvements to existing housing and the second runway at Manchester Airport.

“Sharston Industrial Estate has always been a major employer in the area. We hope the investment will significantly boost local employment opportunities and the prestige of the area even more,” he explained. “Where possible we are investing in local suppliers – the new signage, for example, is being manufactured by Harbright Signs, one of the existing occupiers in the estate.”

In addition to the infrastructure works, the partnership has started to acquire redundant vacant buildings on the estate in order to deal with historic dereliction. The first purchase was the former Manor Bakeries’ property, whose 1.4 hectare site has been cleared, re-named Alpha Point and is now available for the immediate development of up to 6,500 sq m of purpose-built manufacturing or warehouse accommodation.

European Regional Development Fund and Single Regeneration Budget support has also been secured, in tandem with Manchester City Council, for two other sites which are to be refurbished to provide a complimentary range of small and medium sized industrial units. “Now existing occupiers can see something happening they are becoming more proactive and beginning to invest in their own properties,” says Perrin. “Although still in its early days, one of our aims is to encourage tenants to invest in their premises and modernise their leases and therefore help improve the overall image of the Estate.”

In addition to Sharston Industrial Estate, Ringway Developments has also launched Sharston Green, a 14 hectare mixed-use business park, on an adjacent site on the opposite side of the M56 motorway. Work on a new 9,290 sq m manufacturing facility for local employer Hellermann Insuloid, an existing occupier on Sharston Industrial Estate, is nearing completion. Construction has also started on a new 2,044 sq m unit for Airline Service which is expanding its current operations at Manchester Airport. Perrin says both Sharston Green and the industrial estate are both ideally located due to their proximity to both the M56 and Manchester Airport. The imminent completion of the M60 orbital motorway will enhance the location even further. “With the expansion of the second runway, many airport-related operators will be looking for accommodation for their businesses both on and adjacent to the airport,” he adds. “We are looking to provide these companies, and other businesses attracted by the motorway access, with a range of advanced units and flexible design and build opportunities at a choice of developments, all of which benefit from the excellent strategic location.”

For further details on Sharston Industrial Estate contact Tom Davis of DGI Davis George on 01925 490 490

Manchester’s run up to the Commonwealth Games is officially underway with a ground breaking ceremony due to take place shortly at the 60 hectare games site in Eastlands. Work on advanced site investigation by Norwest Holst Soil Engineering started at the site in September 1998, but with the approval of the application for enabling works, site works can now proceed.

Due to previous developments, the site at Eastlands presents difficult ground conditions. The enabling work involves remediation of the site, service diversions and bulk earthworks and will have to be carried out before construction of the stadium can start in the autumn. With a 1,000-day delivery plan, completion of the stadium should be achieved by December 2001. Eastlands, which already houses the National Cycling Centre, will also become home to the North West regional sports institute, retail, hotel and commercial facilities, served by an extension to the Metrolink.

Held over ten days, from July 25 to August 4 2002, the Games will be the largest sporting event ever held in Britain, attracting up to 5,250 competitors and officials. It is vitally important for the Commonwealth Games Movement and the future reputation of Manchester and the UK as a venue for major international events that the City hosts the best possible Games.

The Games are growing: the number of participating athletes increased in Kuala Lumpur and will increase again in 2002. Funding for the Games will come from a variety of sources, including sponsorship, broadcasting rights and ticket sales. A final decision over the sports to be included is to be resolved by the summer, ready for approval by the Commonwealth Games Federation in October. To further the wider regeneration of east Manchester the City Council has now been afforded Pathfinder Status in the New Deal for Communities Programme for a bid centred around the Beswick and Openshaw area and a bid to the Government’s Single Regeneration Budget Round 5 has also been encouraged in East Manchester.

These and other initiatives, such as the existing Eastside regeneration activity, a proposed Education Action Zone bid for East Manchester, and associated private sector investment, could see a total investment plan of well over £400 million for east Manchester over the next four years. These regeneration plans to transform the area will be overseen by the East Manchester Regeneration Agency – a task force comprising The Regional Development Agency, Manchester City Council and English Partnerships.

After months of waiting, The Manchester Museums Project, has been awarded a major grant from the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF). The £4.5 million grant, awarded in December, is the final piece in the funding jigsaw that will see £60 million invested in three stunning projects.

Involving the Manchester Museum, the Museum of Science and Industry in Manchester and the City Art Gallery, the project will reinforce Manchester’s international reputation as a city of culture and increase access for everyone to Manchester’s treasures. Chris Smith, Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, visiting all three venues to celebrate the event, described the developments as ‘exciting’ and in line with his department’s objectives of “widening physical and intellectual access to collections, promoting education, tackling social exclusion and supporting economic prosperity”.

Manchester Museum
The Manchester Museum’s £1.9 million share of the ERDF grant will enable it to go ahead with a two-stage project that will meet the needs of the next millennium. Parts of the museum, which is situated on Oxford Road, will stay open throughout the development. During Phase 1, due for completion next April, five of the galleries will remain open. Main features of the first phase include:
- New geology galleries featuring new specimens of dinosaurs and minerals and an exploration of the solar system.

- Purpose-built vivarium to house the museum’s unique collection of frogs. – Innovative centre for learning.

- “Science for Life” – an interactive exhibition about the human body.

- New lifts, stairways and improved links between buildings. Phase 2 of the project, due for completion at the end of 2001, includes:

- Creation of an external courtyard, new four-storey entrance and reception area.

- Large exhibition gallery to house major exhibitions.

- New purpose-built shop. – Visitor services including a new cafe, kitchen and toilets.

- New galleries to display coins, ethnography, archery, and other treasures

- New lecture theatre for public lectures and corporate hire.

- Improved storage and research facilities.

Museum of Science and Industry in Manchester

The Museum of Science and Industry in Manchester is situated on the site of the world’s oldest passenger railway station on Liverpool Road. Additional facilities will represent the final phase of the expansion of the museum since it opened in 1983. The scheme includes:

- Conversion of two large viaduct arches, adjacent to the 1830 Warehouse, into a science theatre for events, demonstrations, films and performances and The Communications Lab Ð a resource aimed at young people to promote an interest in science through media such as radio, recording and virtual reality. The restored 1830 Warehouse will gain new exhibitions and visitor facilities.

- The Support Centre, in the basement of the Lower Byrom Street Warehouse, will enable key collections to be brought onto the site. At present most of the museum’s collections – some of the world’s finest relating to industrial and scientific history Ð are stored off-site with no public access. – Lower Byrom Street Warehouse will gain two new galleries: Manchester Science, reflecting Manchester’s long tradition as a centre of scientific research, and North West Innovation, which will emphasise the region’s tradition of innovation in science, manufacturing, design, and cultural industries. A new glazed entrance structure will be built, and a glazed lift and staircase will provide a visitor vantage point.

Manchester City Art Gallery

Work has already begun on a £24 million scheme at the City Art Gallery to completely refurbish the Mosley Street main building and the Athenaeum on Princess Street and build a new extension linking the two. Design competition winner Michael Hopkins & Partners is working closely with the City Council and English Heritage. The new four-storey building will provide a clear route around the gallery and will include:

- Additional space for the presentation of Manchester’s internationally acclaimed art collection.

- A superb new gallery for special exhibitions. – An exciting new orientation and interpretation gallery.

- A bigger shop and cafe. – A new lecture theatre and classroom suite.

- Improved information points, toilet facilities and cloakrooms.

- Art storage and handling facilities in the basement area