Future City: Manchester tomorrow

Manchester City Centre – The Future

As the property market struggles through severe economic turbulence, plans for exciting major new developments in Manchester city centre continue to appear on the drawing board.

In terms of where they are located there are two strands to the story: firstly, the consolidation of the city centre and, secondly, the delivery of major new schemes both inside and outside the city centre fringe.

The City Centre

Unveiled in 2009, the ‘Town Hall Complex Transformation Programme’ will, once complete, create a new commercial location and upgrade and enhance some of the city’s most important civic buildings and spaces, including the Town Hall, Town Hall Extension, Central Library and St Peter's Square. Elisabeth House will be demolished in due course with permission now in place for a new 14-storey office building. The design team for the enhancement of the public space in the Square is expected to be announced in October 2010 following an ‘international design competition’.

Elsewhere, a major objective will be finding appropriate solutions for existing buildings and spaces. The transfer of the Football Museum from Preston North End’s football ground, Deepdale, to Urbis will be of interest as will be the enhancement of the elegant former Fire Station on London Road.

This Grade II* listed building was designed by architects Woodhouse, Willoughby and Langham and closed in 1986. Last month a planning application was submitted by Britannia Hotels for a four star 227-bedroom hotel on the site. Similarly, a new proposal for the Jackson’s Wharf site is currently being considered by the City Council. A decision on both schemes is expected in the next few weeks.

Other projects that I believe are on the radar include the Great Northern Warehouse and incomplete developments scattered across the city centre fringe, namely Sarah Village, Issa Quay, Sarah Tower and the River Street site adjacent to the Mancunian Way.

Inside the Inner Relief Route

A major scheme is that of the Mayfield Development proposals located to the east of Piccadilly Station (including the former Mayfield Station building opposite platform 14). The vision for the 20-acre site is to create a flagship development for Central Government with an office campus accommodating around 5,000 civil servants drawn from the South East and parts of Greater Manchester. Once delivery commences this will, without doubt, deliver a major piece of investment for Manchester city centre and the region.

Strengthening the southern portion of the city centre – known as the ‘Southern Gateway’ – will also be a priority. The various component sub-areas which include First Street, Macintosh Village and Oxford Road will create links across the city both east-west and north-south; in turn expanding the active heart of the city centre beyond the railway viaduct and connecting the city’s economic base with Hulme, Hulme Park, Moss Side and Castlefield.

Tied in with this will be the ‘Corridor Manchester’ initiative which covers a 243-hectare area that runs south along Oxford Road from St Peter’s Square to Whitworth Park, and from east to west including Birley Fields in Hulme – the proposed new campus for Manchester Metropolitan University.

In terms of the emerging partnership approach with Salford City Council, key pieces of the jigsaw include the Greengate Embankment proposals located on the site of the old Exchange Railway Station in Salford. The first phase is already in place by way of the Abito apartment scheme completed in 2007 along with the adjacent residential development on Blackfriars Road known as ‘Spectrum’. It will, in time, provide a new place for offices and business in the city centre with significant new public space.

Outside the Inner Relief Route

The redevelopment and regeneration of the Co-operative Group’s existing twenty acre site (known as the Co-operative Complex) will provide a major office-led, mixed-use development at the northern gateway to the city centre. The Group’s new headquarters, designed by architects 3D Reid, secured planning permission in September 2009 for 320,000 square feet of office space over 15 storeys and will, undoubtedly, provide an anchor to the whole project.

Within close proximity to the Green Quarter, the redevelopment of the former Boddingtons Brewery site will also be interesting, with great potential to stimulate investment across the wider surrounding northern city fringe area. In Salford, the redevelopment of Chapel Street is a major mixed-use scheme spanning 18 hectares extending westwards towards the University of Salford.

Whilst, many of the larger schemes are commercially-led there will still be a focus on the expanding city centre population (indeed, the majority of these schemes are likely to include a residential element). To ensure continued diversity in the population, there is a need to attract families. This, in truth, can only be achieved with the provision of necessary community infrastructure such as health facilities and schools.

Innovative projects such as New Islington, along with Ancoats Urban Village, will over the course of time play a leading role in satisfying this need. They will provide links with the city centre, the city centre fringe, and beyond the fringe in places such as Miles Platting and Collyhurst.

Will all of these projects be built? I am sure they will. They might take time and they may change in terms of design and their uses but you can’t help but feel that they will eventually happen. The city has done well so far and I’m sure the downturn won’t hold back the next chapter.

Euan Kellie is the author of the recent book Rebuilding Manchester – see our review here.

You can order the book on Amazon.