The University of Manchester is seeking a partner to help deliver a £1.5 billion ‘innovation district’, a huge scheme masterplanned by Sheppard Robson
The ID Manchester project in the city centre, which was showcased to international investors at the MIPIM property fair yesterday (12 March), is billed as a ‘dynamic’ new neighbourhood which ’will nurture the next generation of game-changing businesses’.
It will be built on 10.5ha of land next to Bradshaw Gass & Hope’s Grade II-listed Sackville Street Building, close to Piccadilly Railway Station and the future HS2 station, and aims to create more than 6,000 jobs.
According to Colin Thomasson, executive director of CBRE and property adviser to the University of Manchester, the 300,000m² scheme marks ’the last major development opportunity in a city centre which is seeing exceptional growth’.
Nancy Rothwell, the university’s president and vice-chancellor, added: ’I’ve seen how transformative other innovation districts in cities across the globe can be.
’I truly believe we can make ID Manchester the innovation capital of Europe, providing the perfect conditions for organisations of all sizes and from different sectors to share knowledge and work together, turning incredible ideas into reality.’
An OJEU notice will be released this summer to find a partner, with the victorious team expected to be named by mid-2020.
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Readers' comments (1)
Robert Wakeham15 March, 2019 9:30 am
This site appears to flank the increasingly congested western rail link from Piccadilly station, and it would be reassuring to know that the development is planned to take account of the need to widen this bottleneck from two tracks to four - a difficult challenge in a heavily built up area close to the city centre.
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