MIPIM: Evergreen loan confirmed for Spinningfields
A public finance package worth £10m in cheap loans from Regional Growth Fund and the European Evergreen programme has been agreed by the Greater Manchester authorities to enable Allied London to build the 160,000 sq ft Cotton Building.
Addressing delegates on the Manchester stand, Eamonn Boylan, chief executive of Stockport Council and lead officer for investment at the Association of Greater Manchester Authorities, said the latest investment from the city region's investment pool would go into the speculative next phase of the Spinningfields business district.
The building will be the penultimate in the Spinningfields estate and will occupy a 22,000 sq ft plot between the rear RBS offices and the Civil Justice Centre. Cotton will be followed by the Ian Simpson-designed One Spinningfields, a 19-storey addition to and refurbishment of Quay House next to the main square.
Boylan said the public funding would be matched by £10m of private investment by Allied London. Evergreen uses European Regional Development Fund cash to enable urban development aimed at job creation and low carbon design in priority sites, and is underwritten by the European Investment Bank.
The first round of Evergreen is on course to be fully committed in the coming months and a second fund is likely to follow.
Boylan said work would begin this month on the Cotton Building, designed by Cartwright Pickard. Allied London received planning consent in January. The developer was advised by planners at Deloitte Real Estate.
