It has bought the Heaton Retail Park in Manchester from Standard Life Investments for £5.7 m.

Read more abot this story from propertyweek.com

The 8.9ha Spinningfields area is bounded by Deansgate, Bridge Street, Quay Street and the River Irwell and was originally home to the sprawling buildings of the Manchester College of Arts & Technology, outdated courts buildings and council offices at Cumberland House. With a need to replace the courts, Allied London was chosen to spearhead its redevelopment. The first phase of the development saw the construction of a new £5m business studies centre for Mancat on Quay Street. This was handed over to the college in April 2002 and paved the way for work to start on Westbury Homes Left Bank residential development overlooking the River Irwell. This £80m development includes a 16-storey tower and is due for completion in phases from the summer.

Work on the new City Magistrates Courts building, on the site of Cumberland House started early in 2002 after council staff had moved to new premises. The £30m building is being built by consortium G4CSG under the Private Finance Initiative and is a joint venture between Manchester City Council and the Lord Chancellor’s department.

The new court comprises 18 courtrooms, coroner’s court, waiting rooms, access areas and office space for 180 support staff, together with around 1,915 sq m of retail space. The court and office facilities are housed in separate buildings with a glazed atrium separating the blocks. The layout allows for operational changes within the judicial system over the life of the building, with the ability to let the office space separately. The building is due to be handed over in the next couple of months.

Also due for handover this spring are two new buildings for the Royal Bank of Scotland. On the Deansgate frontage is the customer facing element, 1 Spinningfields Square. This includes A1/A2/A3 uses at ground level, with seven floors of offices above. Glass-faced, the building reflects the adjacent Rylands Library.

To the rear, 1 Hardman Boulevard will operate as RBS’s back office in a 41,355 sq m, ten-storey centre. The building was designed by RHWL and again includes ground floor retail space – part of the plan to make Spinningfields attractive to pedestrians.

Yet to come in Spinningfields are more offices and a new Civil Justice Courts on Gartside Street. The latter will be housed in a 15-storey, 36,381 sq m, building designed by Australian architects Denton Corker Marshall. The 56 law courts in the building will deal with civil court cases and represents a consolidation of the civil court sites throughout the city. Work is due to start in the summer.

Two offices already have the benefit of planning permission. Number 2 Hardman Street will be a 14,000 sq m unit located directly to the rear of 1 Spinningfields. Guardian Media Group, which publishes the Manchester Evening News, Guardian and Observer, is to take four floors of the building in a deal which will see their existing offices on the Deansgate frontage made available for redevelopment. On the opposite side of Hardman Street, on land currently used for car parking, Allied London has permission for a further ten-storey building with 21,163 sq m offices above 790 sq m ground floor uses. Meanwhile Allied London has commis-sioned architect Lord Foster to design the 1.6ha site at the centre of Spinningfields. This should be submitted for planning consideration in the summer and includes a 35- storey office tower, 1 Hardman Square. This, together with a further three buildings surrounding a new public  square, will replace Quay House on Quay Street, together with the southern end of the courts site. This phase of the development will include 92,900 sq m of offices, a 6,503 sq m department store and a 250-bed hotel.

The design for Spinningfields also includes four major new or reconfigured public squares, a tree-lined boulevard and enhancement to existing streets and riverside walk-ways. Designed by Hyland Edgar Driver, the public realm works are due for completion at the culmination of the Spinningfields project in 2008. The £13m public realm works being carried out by Wrekin includes paving, ballustrading and street furniture.

The 3,000 new homes that will be built over the next five years in the area that once powered Manchester’s role as the cradle of the Industrial Revolution will transform Ancoats as millions of pounds of public and private investment are pumped in.

Ancoats Urban Village lies just to the east of Manchester City Centre, covering an area of 20ha between the Rochdale Canal and Oldham Road. The world’s first industrial suburb, Ancoats still contains a unique collection of former mills and other historic buildings. With the original cotton spinning industry long gone, recent years have seen considerable dereliction and many of the listed industrial buildings remain vacant.

The Ancoats Urban Village Company, part of New East Manchester Ltd, is charged with co-ordinating development and regeneration in Ancoats, working with key partners the Northwest Development Agency, Ancoats Building Preservation Trust and Manchester City Council. The key aim is to create a new urban village of around 3,000 people with places to work and visit as well as to live, while safeguarding the heritage of the area. Although some regeneration work has already taken place in the Village, progress was limited: land owners were unwilling to be the first to invest in their land and property, which led to a stalemate as buildings decayed. However, with the approval of the Northwest Development Agency’s compulsory purchase order (CPO) in September 2002 the element of uncertainty was removed and development is now well underway.

The CPO was the second in the country to have been promoted by a regional development agency (narrowly pipped at the post by nearby Central Park) and its purpose was not to assemble sites for comprehensive redevelopment or infrastructure purposes, but rather to ensure high quality development takes place within a reasonable timescale.

The CPO puts the onus on developers to come forward with suitable plans for their land. If these are not forthcoming or do not meet certain design and use criteria the land/buildings can be offered to the market and a suitable developer selected. Once a development scheme has been agreed, key milestone targets are set out. This ensures each scheme is developed, providing certainty and confidence in the area.

For buildings and sites that currently do not have developers and schemes confirmed Ancoats Urban Village Company is in the process of selecting suitable developers. Three bands of scheme value will be offered to ensure that small, innovative, developers do not slip through the net. These will be for up to £2m, £2m to £10m, and for over £10m.

SCHEMES ALREADY COMPLETED

WAULK MILL

Waulk Mill at 51 Bengal Street was recently converted into commercial space, in a £2.8m development by Urban Splash. The RIBA-award-winning scheme by Total Architecture has created self-contained office accommodation across four floors. It is home to the Ancoats Urban Village Company.

EXPRESS NETWORKS

Artisan’s Express Networks scheme has seen the conversion of the former Express printing works between Oldham Street and George Leigh Street. The first phase, completed in 2001, involved the creation of over 2,000 sq m of commercial space and 22 apartments. The second phase has created 2,376 sq m commercial space and 46 apartments and continues the success of Phase 1, attracting small new media and IT companies to Ancoats. The company has also converted Virginia House on the Great Ancoats Street frontage into 1,022 sq m of commercial space with an art gallery at ground floor.

MM2

The MM2 scheme at the junction of Great Ancoats Street and Jersey Street, a joint venture between Gleeson and Persimmon Homes, has created retail and commercial space, together with 92 apartments and live/work units.

FLINT GLASS WORKS

Lever Street Properties’ conversion of this former industrial building at 64 Jersey Street was completed in 2003 creating 1,400 sq m of offices/light industrial space.

29-37 GREAT ANCOATS STREET

(Derros and Hudson Buildings)

The conversion by North British Housing Association/Manchester Methodist Housing Association of buildings at the junction of Great Ancoats Street and George Leigh Street has created 23 apartments with commercial uses at ground level and is nearing completion.

CURRENT PROJECTS

ROYAL MILLS

Work on the Royal Mills complex on Jersey Street is underway, with ING Real Estate, which redeveloped the Albert Dock in Liverpool, due to unveil its marketing suite shortly.

Phase 1 of the scheme will see the Old Sedgewick Mill converted into 122 flats with commercial uses at ground and first floor level as well as the construction of two new buildings providing a further 71 apartments. The total development will see the creation of 11,000 sq m of B1 space together with 283 apartments and is planned for completion in 2007. The Royal Mills scheme is backed by an £8.8m grant from the Northwest Development Agency.

ING is also to develop a site at the corner of Henry Street, Blossom Street and Cotton Street. The scheme is due to begin this summer and includes 670 sq m commercial space and 22 apartments, together with a much-needed 217 space multi-storey car park.

MURRAYS’ MILLS COMPLEX

The earliest remaining example of a textile mill built to use steam power to directly drive spinning machinery, the shell of Murrays’ Mill is currently being restored in a £12m project. This will include the under-pinning of the entire building – which was built without foundations – new windows and repairs to the roof. It is also planned to re-open the canal basin in the central court-yard, which linked to the Rochdale Canal. The basin was used to receive the coal needed to power the vast boilers of the cotton mill. Archaeologists working on the site have found moorings for the boats embedded in the paving slabs. Funding comes from a £7m grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund and £5m from the Northwest Development Agency and is being carried out by the Ancoats Building Preservation Trust.

The brief for the future use of the building is wide, and the mixed-use scheme could include a museum. There is also the potential to build a new structure on the fourth side of the central courtyard, fronting Bengal Street, to replace a building that burned down in the 1990s. A carefully selected developer is currently being sought for this important mill complex.

The Grade II listed baths opened in 1906 to serve the Longsight area of Manchester. Lavishly designed withstained-glass windows and ornate tiling, the building provided three pools, 64 wash baths as well as Turkish and Russian baths. Victoria Baths provided swimming and bathing facilities for nearly 90 years, closing in 1993 despite local protests.

Soon after the closure, the Victoria Baths Trust launched a campaign to bring it back into use as a £15m health and leisure centre. The money raised from the Restoration series will fund the first stage of the project – restoring the Turkish baths. In the final programme of the series more than two million votes were cast and more than 1.3 million phone votes during the ten programmes added £275,000 towards the Restoration prize, topped up with a £3m Heritage Lottery Fund grant.

The City Council, the Heritage Lottery Fund and government conservation adviser English Heritage are commissioning a feasibility study to see how the rest of the building can be renewed. The inclusion of bars or a restaurant has been mooted. The building would cost £15m to open as a public swimming pool complex.

Gill Wright, spokesman for the Victoria Baths Trust, said: “The feasibility study will look at all the options. The best use for a listed building is always the original use and we know we got a lot of votes because people wanted it to be restored for use as a swimming pool.

“But a use where we could keep the pool spaces open, like a bar-restaurant where people could use the balconies, would be preferable to a residential conversion.”

Construction work on the first stage of the building’s restoration will begin in October next year and a further lottery bid submitted towards the cost of restoring the rest of the building.

The Victoria Baths Trust runs an arts programme, supported by the Arts Council, the Neighbourhood Renewal Fund and Awards for All. There will be arts activities at Victoria Baths throughout next summer as well as regular public open days.

For more information about the Friends of Victoria Baths call 0161 224 2020, email victoriabaths@aol.com or visit the website at www.victoriabaths.org.uk

VICTORIA BATHS – 100 YEARS OF HISTORY

* The plan to provide baths to serve Longsight, St. Luke’s and Rusholme was first considered by the Baths & Wash-houses Committee of Manchester Corporation in 1897

* Original estimates for the construction of the baths were £57,000 in 1902, almost twice the usual cost of building public baths.

* By 1905 the cost of completing the building had climbed to over £59,000.

* When the baths opened in 1906 few people had a bathroom at home, so the slipper baths or wash-baths provided the first real bath for  many.

* Men and women bathers were segregated until 1924 when mixed bathing was introduced with great trepidation.

* Channel swimmer Sunny Lowry began her career at Victoria Baths. She successfully swam the channel in August 1933.

* Olympic swimmer John Besford also trained at the baths.

* In 1952 England’s first municipal aerotone therapeutic bath – a prototype jacuzzi – was installed.

* Victoria Baths closed in 1993. The Victoria Baths Trust carried out a £244,000 programme of emergency work in 2002 with funding from English Heritage and the A6 Partnership.

BUILDING ON SUCCESS

After Victoria Baths’ TV success, two more local landmarks are to be put under the spotlight in a new documentary which will exploit the new craze for old architecture. Historic Rose Hill in Northenden, which was built by Absalom Watkin and developed by his son Edward, has suffered years of dereliction and despair, but is now being transformed into apartments. The building will appear in a new Granada programme called Derelict Discoveries.

Also featured will be Hugh Mason House swimming baths in Ashton under Lyne. Mason, MP for Ashton in the 19th century, was a social reformer who regenerated the area and was the first to give workers weekends off.

An exhibition of Spinningfields, held at Manchester Town Hall in February, laid down the blueprint for the renaissance of the area of Manchester bounded by Deansgate, Bridge Street, Quay Street and the River Irwell.

The 8.90 ha mixed use scheme features ten major office buildings, together with new City Magistrates Courts, two impressive luxury hotels, several residential apartment buildings, a new college for Manchester College of Arts and Technology and a unique array of shops, restaurants and bars.

A number of buildings in the area will be retained, including the Pumphouse Museum, Gartside Street multi-storey car park, the Opera House and other buildings fronting Quay Street. The existing Crown Courts will also be retained, but will be extended at the Hardman Street end, onto part of the area occupied by the existing Magistrates’ Court.

John Rylands Library, which houses one of the most spectacular collections of rare books and manuscripts in the world, will gain a new entrance building, replacing the current grey brick extension. The new building will include a wheelchair accessible lift along with catering and retailing facilities.

The area will be opened up with new direct links established between Deansgate and the River Irwell. These links will open up more public space, much of which will be along a pedestrian boulevard running from the side of the Opera House down to the Irwell, parallel with New Quay Street. This will pass through two new squares – Hardman Square and Irwell Square- before linking with a new pedestrian footbridge across the river.

Work on the first phase of the scheme should start within the next 12 months. This covers the construction of a new, 18,588 sq m Magistrates” Court on the site of Cumberland House, to the rear of John Rylands. A new City Centre facility for Manchester College of Arts and Technology will be built on part of the existing Mancat site on New Quay Street and a new riverside development built along the Irwell between the Pumphouse and New Quay Street. This is set to include new homes, restaurants, bars, retail units and gallery space.

Also in the first phase will be a five-star, 235-room hotel, on the site of Northcliffe House, situated at the corner of Hardman Street and Deansgate.

Later phases of the scheme will depend on commercial demand but could include a further hotel on part of the college site, ten office blocks with up to 65,058 sq m of high callibre space, further residential blocks, retail space and a multi-storey car park. These will utilise not only the remainder of the Mancat site, but also part of the sites of Cumberland House, the existing Magistrates’ Court and vacant land on Hardman Street. There is also a proposal to demolish the existing YHA shop and Manchester Evening News building and replace them with a major retail store

“The scheme will help consolidate Manchester”s standing as a modern, dynamic, international centre for major investment. Following the successful redevelopment of the bomb damaged area, the regeneration of this quarter will represent the next significant phase of investment in the City Centre.

“It will be an exciting place for people and families and will make a major contribution to our key policy objective of providing new job opportunities for Manchester residents.”
Richard Leese, Leader, Manchester City Council

“This is a sustainable development and can be delivered through our valuable partnership with Manchester City Council. These buildings and the public space around them will create a commercial area needed to enable Manchester to achieve it’s deserved international status.”
Michael Ingall, Managing Director, Allied London Properties

Offering customers a glimpse of shopping for the future, the £85 million premises includes all Marks & Spencer’s services, initiatives and facilities under one roof for the first time ever.

With around 18,500 square metres of sales floor space across four floors, the state of the art development, which opened its doors on November 25, is linked by travelator to a basement car park while four glass lifts link the upper floors.

Visitors to the shopping extravaganza will find the food hall on the lower ground floor, complete with bakery, butcher’s shop and delicatessen counter. In addition, shoppers can browse the home furnishing department on the same level, together with a coffee bar in which to mull over purchases. A new-look wine department includes a tasting area where advisors are on hand to point you in the right direction.

The ladieswear department is spread across the ground and part of the first floor with lingerie and childrenswear accommodating the remainder. Meanwhile, menswear and a second coffee bar can be found on the second floor.

If the size of the store proves too much, shoppers are able to take a break in the customer lounge, putting their feet up while reading newspapers or watching TV. For the younger visitor, the welcome break is more likely to be found in the store’s play area.

On a more serious note, and helping to cater for every need, is the new-concept M&S Financial Services area. This includes a commission-free Bureau de Change and for visitors from further afield, tax free shopping can also be arranged.

Other special services include a complimentary personal shopping service where trained consultants can help customers find the ideal outfit in an exclusive suite.

The inaugural foundation stone marking the start of building work on the store was laid in June 1997, followed by the concrete foundations at the beginning of 1998. Construction of the building’s steel frame had been completed by the middle of 1998 with the topping-out ceremony performed in February 1999 by Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott. In early autumn, external elevations were completed followed by three month of hectic activity seeing the internal fixtures and fittings finally being put in place.

During the intervening period M&S has been operating from two temporary stores in the city centre – a food hall on Spring Gardens and M&S Piccadilly on three floors within Lewis’s. The former closed its doors on November 24 and the latter will close at the end of the year.

A total of 450 staff from the two sites have been moved into the new store, together with 400 permanent and temporary new employees.

Regional manager of M&S Manchester David Eyre said: “We promised the city a stunning new store for the Millennium and that is exactly what we have delivered.”

It’s all a far cry from Michael Marks’ first ever shop on Cheetham Hill Road, Manchester in 1893

Facts and Figures about the new Store

- 1,200 stone panels clad the building, weighing 3,000 tonnes

- The store is fitted with 5,000 sprinkler heads, serviced with more than 15 miles of piping

- Each sales floor is roughly the size of a football pitch

- The sales floors are lit by a total of 6,650 lighting units, including 4,000 spotlights

- There are around 280 miles of electrical lighting cables.

Piccadilly Gardens

For many years the hub of a busy and thriving City Centre, Piccadilly Gardens was once home to the Manchester Royal Infirmary, public baths and Central Reference Library. The Gardens lie between the main retail, business and hotel areas of the City and represent an important civic square and green space in the centre of Manchester. For many years, however, they have been in need of investment and concerns over their poor condition and appearance have grown.

The City Council, along with a range of private sector partners, plans to transform the area into an international quality public space in the heart of Manchester which will reflect its standing as a European regional capital. A team made up of EDAW, the company responsible for the City Centre Masterplan; the Manchester office of engineering firm Ove Arup; acclaimed Japanese architect Tadao Ando; Chapman Robinson Architects and Peter Fink Lighting Specialists, are responsible for the re-design of Piccadilly Gardens.

The scheme will include walk-through fountains spanned by a catwalk bridge and new horticultural gardens will be planted next to the Queen Victoria statue. More lawns will be planted, a tree-lined boulevard along Piccadilly created and there are ambitious plans to light the entire area, not only improving the aesthetic quality of the area but also safety at night for users of the Gardens and the public transport interchange.

Another key objective of the scheme is a dramatic upgrade of the bus interchange and pedestrian area. Passenger waiting and information facilities are to be improved with new shelters and buildings. Buses are also to be re-routed and general traffic will be removed from Lever Street to improve conditions for pedestrians on the north side of the gardens. Part of the Metrolink line will be realigned from Market Street to Piccadilly Gardens in order to release more land for the central open space. The design will widen the public realm and improve links between Piccadilly, the railway station, China Town and the Northern Quarter of the City.

Funding for the improvements will come in part from a prestigious new building to be developed on Portland Street which will also act as a shield from car traffic noise. Manchester City Council leader Richard Leese said: “We want to create an improved environment for residents to enjoy as well as creating a positive and welcoming first impression for visitors to Manchester who pass through the area when arriving in the city.”

Piccadilly Plaza

A planning application for the comprehensive refurbishment of Piccadilly Plaza was submitted to the City Council for consideration in May 1999. Built between 1960 and 1965 the Plaza was to form the first stage of a massive development stretching to Oxford Road and incorporating 50 other tower blocks. Although the plan was never realised, the Plaza has still become a major landmark on Manchester’s skyline.

Sunley Tower is the second tallest building in Manchester after the CIS Tower and the Plaza continues to occupy a prime retail and office location. But, as with the Piccadilly Gardens, the Plaza has become run down and poorly maintained. A large proportion of the Plaza’s floorspace has become vacant and, due to its deteriorating physical condition, it is becoming an increasingly unattractive feature of the City Centre landscape.

In 1991 the Plaza went into receivership and low investment levels have led to rapid decline. Now, after assuming control of the Plaza in 1998 for a reported £22 million, Piccadilly Plaza LP is to take the complex into the next century.

When completed, the refurbished Piccadilly Plaza will be renamed the Piccadilly Exchange. With long leases currently being held by NCP, the Government Office for the North West and the Jarvis Hotel Group, the wholesale redevelopment of the site would not be feasible. Instead it was decided to carry out a more realistic but extensive refurbishment programme. The scheme will involve:
- Creation of a new two-level shopping arcade and a link between York Street and Parker Street
- Refurbishment and recladding of Sunley Tower, to be renamed City Tower l Internal refurbishment of City Tower and a new ground floor reception area to create ‘grade A’ office accommodation
- Refurbishment of and improvement of facilities for the Jarvis Piccadilly Hotel
- Removal of Bernard House to make way for new retailing space
- Revitalisation of the current street-scape, featuring three-level retailing
- Enhancement of retail and leisure facilities throughout the entire development.

Refurbishment of Sunley Tower will have a major impact on the City’s skyline. It is to be totally reclad in green tinted solar reflective glass and floodlighting will turn the tower into an important and attractive night time landmark. Internally, there will be a complete overhaul of the buildings services in order to establish the new City Tower as a prime office location.

Access to the tower will be gained through an impressive new ground floor reception area which will reflect its enhanced status. The existing escalators will be removed and replaced by an extension of the lifts to ground floor level. The work programme has been agreed with the Government Office for the North West which will remain in the building during the work

A new two-tier shopping arcade linking York Street and Parker Street will be perhaps the most significant addition to the Piccadilly Exchange. Incorporating the area of the former petrol station and car hire centre on York Street, the arcade will feature dramatic glazed canopies at its two street level entrances and a glazed roof. Greatly improved pedestrian access between the Gardens and China Town was a key element of the City Council’s design brief for Piccadilly, opening up surrounding areas and increasing the number of pedestrians. The new shop units will be let at affordable rents.

As with Sunley Tower, the Jarvis Piccadilly Hotel is to undergo a total external refurbishment, making use of a glass and metal cladding system which will match the rest of the Piccadilly Exchange. A new entrance will be built on Portland Street to enhance the approach to the building, and will be floodlit at night. The internal refurbishment includes the addition of 14 premium quality rooms, taking the total number up to 285, and a new event and meeting room large enough for 250 people.

Bernard House, the third block above the podium, is currently in a state of disrepair. Largely unoccupied, its roof is now supported by temporary scaffolding and the building will be demolished above podium level in the first stages of refurbishment. The existing basement, ground and first floors will be used to create large retail units fronting Mosley Street, Parker Street and York Street.

Piccadilly’s new image will be further enhanced by recladding of the ground floor and piazza levels in keeping with the materials used on the Sunley Tower and Jarvis Hotel. Improved lighting and CCTV will also be introduced to ensure the safety of all people entering the Exchange, particularly at night. The NCP car park will not be substantially altered, though improvements will be made to pedestrian access, lighting CCTV and lift access.

When completed, Piccadilly Exchange will comprise over 31,000 sq m of office space, 17,000 sq m of retailing and a 19,000 sq m hotel. It is estimated that it will employ 1,797 people and is expected to be completed before the 2002 Commonwealth Games. The refurbishment of Piccadilly Plaza reflects other activity throughout Manchester, and it is the renewed confidence in the City Centre, along with the City Council’s objectives for Piccadilly Gardens that made it an ideal time for the developers to act.

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

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

The government’s Creative Industry Task Force claims the cultural industries are “the future economic powerhouse of this country”. Manchester has the infrastructure to take advantage of this potential to create jobs and generate economic growth. T

his is the conclusion of a research team led by the Manchester Institute for Popular Culture (MIPC) at the Manchester Metropolitan University, commissioned by the City Council, Manchester TEC, the North West Arts Board and MIDAS. Investment in culture is creating the vibrant, cosmopolitan image that brings people to Manchester.

The City includes several cultural flagship buildings such as the Bridgewater Hall, City Art Gallery and Royal Exchange Theatre which are all integral to its development. Equally important is the production of culture – theatre, music, film/television, design, publishing and muiltimedia. T

hese are not only the key to an innovative and creative cultural sector, but act as a catalyst for innovation in other sectors Culture and the local economy Cultural industries account for 3.6 per cent of employment in the City Pride area. This represents over 10,000 jobs – only slightly less than the construction industry. There are a few large employers, but the majority (58 per cent) of employment is accounted for by small and micro enterprises and sole practitioners.

National research undertaken by Spectrum indicates a potential growth rate of between four and ten per cent per annum in these industries, representing between 2,000 and 5,000 additional jobs in the City Pride area over the next five years. It is in the small businesses sector that this potential growth is the highest.

Main sub sectors

Manchester is the largest regional centre for television and film production in the UK and film and media account for 20 per cent of cultural industries employment in the area. Granada and the BBC are the major employers but rely on a whole host of micro-enterprises which provide specialist services to the industry.

Design industries account for a quarter of the cultural enterprises in the city and is one of its fastest growing sectors.

Music provides Manchester with one of its strongest images as a vibrant, contemporary and cutting edge city and is a reference point for other sub-sectors such as fashion, graphic design and multimedia.

Other key sectors in the cultural economy are architecture, publishing and writing and performing arts.

The report also emphasises the importance of festivals and events in raising the profile of the City, animating the retail centre and attracting tourists. It is a field in which Manchester has a growing national reputation and strong record of visitor attraction.

The City’s cafes, bars and the urban environment itself compliment these activities, acting as informal galleries, venues and alternative retail outlets.

Areas such as Manchester’s Northern Quarter, Gay Village, Castlefield, Salford’s Chapel Street and Ashton in Tameside are focal points for creative businesses and events which bring life to the streets and public spaces across the city.

Creativity and sustainability

Cultural industries demand flexibility and multiple skills and yet many employees and sole practitioners enter the industry without formal qualifications. The industry is particularly attractive to young people and acts as a pathway to employment and education which, in turn, leads to the development of skills and confidence. Cultural projects can play a role in strategies to create access to employment, raise educational attainment and combat social exclusion.

Strategy for growth

The research suggests that the key to growth is support for existing and new small businesses, combined with targeted inward investment to fill strategic gaps. Markets for this growth will be provided both locally and globally and Manchester’s businesses have already demonstrated an ability to access these wider markets.

Although significant in employment terms, the sector is fragile and fragmented. Intervention needs to be carried out on a new ‘bottom up’ basis which is responsive and linked to industry networks.

This approach could provide a model for other sectors such as the retail and service industries. Pilot programme The City Pride Partnership has secured £1.5 million of European Regional Development Funding (ERDF) which will enable a pilot programme to be put in place to stimulate employment and economic expansion in the cultural industries.

The programme will be spearheaded by a new cultural industries development service and will target business support to the sector, assist development in key sub-sectors and address key issues such as networking, market development and multimedia access.

The four local authorities in City Pride: Manchester, Salford, Tameside and Trafford; Manchester TEC; MIDAS and the North West Arts Board are working with the education and cultural industries sector.