Ingall’s Whitworth Street Corridor teaser
Mike Ingall has taken to Twitter to tee up the launch at MIPIM next week of a “new major project” running from London Road Fire Station to St John’s Manchester, the old Granada studios.
Ingall, chief executive of Spinningfields developer Allied London, described Whitworth Street as “Manchester’s new spine of activity, experience and culture”.
He declined to elaborate further when later contacted by Place North West other than to say more would be revealed next week at the global property convention in Cannes, France.
Allied London agreed a deal late last year to buy the much-loved but neglected London Road Fire Station from Britannia Hotels. Details of proposed uses for the listed building after redevelopment have yet to be confirmed. The developer acquired the 25-acre St John’s area off Quay Street from ITV Granada in a joint venture with Manchester City Council in 2013 when the television company moved to Media City UK.
The vision for St John’s revolves mainly around residential but also include offices for the creative sector and the new £110m Factory arts venue funded by the government.
The Whitworth Street Corridor could be used as a brand for the area and involve a partnership approach by several landowners and developers active in the patch, such as the universities – the former Umist campus off Sackville Street is being vacated by University of Manchester as it consolidates south of the Mancunian Way.
The £150m PRS-led Kampus by Henry Boot Developments and Capital & Centric fronts Whitworth Street at one end, as does Urban & Civic’s 240 flats and hotel with consent on the corner of Whitworth Street and Princess Street next to the Gay Village.
As it travels away from Piccadilly Station and London Road Fire Station the corridor crosses Oxford Road – which has long been promoted under its own Oxford Road Corridor and Corridor Manchester tags on council development frameworks and marketing material – where Bruntwood has been selected by Network Rail for a 500,000 sq ft development at the train station, onto the new HOME arts centre at First Street, crossing Deansgate into Castlefield before joining with St John’s around the Museum of Science & Industry on Liverpool Road.
MIPIM runs from Tuesday 15 March to Friday 18 March at the Palais des Festivals. Manchester and Liverpool are both taking large delegations.
