Allied London adds creative expertise to St John’s team

Allied London has hired Piers Read, a former TV producer and specialist in placemaking for creative sectors, as director of enterprise for its St John’s development in Manchester city centre.

Read will be responsible for the Granada Television studios, commercial lettings, retail and leisure, technology and digital, and Allied London’s co-working brand, OGS Works.

Read has had a 15-year career in the creative and broadcasting industry. He was a TV producer at Graham Norton’s SO Television, has worked on programmes Peep Show and The Inbetweeners, and founded Wimbledon Film & TV Studios in 2010.

The studios included The Media Village, a flexible workspace centre of 40,000 sq ft, which consisted of tenants from the creative sectors.

Read was also previously managing director of Custard Factory in Digbeth, Birmingham, a development site for creatives which today houses more than 500 tenants from the tech, digital and creative industries.

Michael Ingall, Allied London’s chief executive, said: “We’re delighted Piers is joining us. When creating new spaces you need to acquire new talent and Piers has a great, complimentary skill set for what we’re trying to achieve at St John’s. He has a proven track record in film, TV and enterprise as well as an ability to curate new places, as he has already demonstrated in London and Birmingham.”

Read added: “Our focus is on curating a commercial enterprise city within St John’s. We already house a diverse community of technology, digital and creative industries and we now plan to grow this cluster at every level to create a complete business ecosystem. Allied London is very well placed to do this and I am excited to be able to bring this vision to life.”