Place Party 2018 | Gallery + video

The rise of WeWork, the demands of a growing millennial workforce, and Manchester’s next top area for office space were the hot topics discussed by a panel of experts at this Place North West event.

As the city centre expands outwards with no apparent slowdown in the number of bars and restaurant openings, it is natural for ambitious leisure companies to be looking outside central Manchester to open new venues, writes Tomas Maunier, director at Fazenda Group.

Transport troubles, investment opportunities worth billions, and the long-discussed Greater Manchester Spatial Framework were all on the agenda at a packed Place North West event focussed on development in Greater Manchester.

With the retail sector undergoing the greatest shift seen in decades, Place North West was joined at the Future of Retail event by expert speakers to explore the current state of the market, occupier trends, and the technology set to define the future of shopping.

The UK construction industry is in desperate need of thousands more recruits each year and Liverpool is no different, writes Peter Commins, managing director of Kier North West.

Around 150 guests joined Place North West, Hourigan Connolly and Social Communications on Friday, for a relaxed afternoon of summer networking at Fazenda in Manchester.

Criticism of Chester’s £300m Northgate project has recently come to a head, with local businesses rallying behind a letter to its developer, Cheshire West & Chester Council, to call for an immediate halt on the scheme. But is there an alternative, and can the city reinvent itself as a modern leisure destination?

Green spaces will be created from the outset at FEC's £1bn Northern Gateway to "change perceptions", the project's director Tom Fenton has said, with other areas being explored for the 15,000-home project including a New York High Line-style link to Victoria Station, a new transport hub, and a "Brewery Quarter".

Manchester has the potential to host a public space bigger than Trafalgar Square, writes Ed Howe of Urbinfo. All we have to do to make it happen is to flatten two of the city's most prominent office blocks. Would it be worth it?

Public-private partnerships will continue to flourish, but challenges around procurement, choosing the right partner, and developing the right sites still remain, according to a panel of experts from both the public and private sectors, speaking at Place North West’s Meet the Authorities event.

Construction is under way on seven major build-to-rent developments which will deliver over 1,900 apartments, bringing the total pipeline of BtR units to just under 3,300 at various stages across Merseyside, writes Ian Taylor of RSM.