Shenton to open co-living Manchester scheme
Entrepreneur Colin Shenton is to follow up his Ziferblat co-working spaces with the launch of Oppidan, a co-living scheme in Manchester’s Swan Street.
Oppidan will occupy the upper floors at the building, which sit at the junction with Oldham Street, with craft beer bar the Quick Brown Fox set to open underneath.
Tenants at Oppidan will pay a single fixed monthly rent which includes their private apartment, utilities, super-fast Wi-Fi, food essentials, living supplies, cleaning and maintenance, four hours of free car hire per month and community events. The site will have a dedicated house manager.
Shenton said that members will also be given unlimited use of all Ziferblats across the UK with a Clockwork membership. He said: “Without Ziferblat we wouldn’t have come up with the Oppidan concept.
“The first Oppidan on Swan Street will house 15 people of any age who want to really embrace true co-living and know their neighbours, build a community. There are three shared spaces inside Oppidan Swan Street, with the layout designed to encourage people to interact and build their community.
“These spaces, one of which includes a dining table for 16 people and a huge party kitchen, are an extension of your own apartment, in which you have your own kitchen, storage, en-suite shower room all your bedding and loads of other amenities.
“People are lonelier in the city than they are in the villages and the countryside – London is famous for this and Manchester isn’t far behind. People in the city are so busy and focussed that they don’t have time to be part of a community as such. People need people and not just on the other side of the gym or the office. Oppidan addresses this.”
The next Oppidans will open in Sheffield, Leeds and Liverpool in 2020, Shenton said.
Ziferblat itself has experienced mixed fortunes – the co-working and shared sitting room spaces have now closed in Liverpool’s St Paul’s Square and at MediaCityUK, although the Edge Street site in Manchester’s Northern Quarter is still open.
The building ahead of its redevelopment
“People are lonelier in the city than they are in the villages and the countryside – which is why people want to live in smaller villages. People leave cities as soon as they can afford to.
By DC
DC – that may have been true in the 1950s but you’ll find most city centres are way more expensive than rural areas nowadays. For the price you can buy a crappy 2 bed in Manchester city centre you could find yourself a huge house with massive garden in Yorkshire, Lancashire and Derbyshire.
By Anonymous
Anonymous – “a huge house with a massive garden in Yorkshire, Lancashire and Derbyshire” – that is really huge if it’s in all three counties!
By George I think she's got it.
Another Colin Shenton scheme, big talk, big publicity,….then quietly goes under….have a look at his track record please.
As they say…”…..he rose without trace…”
By anonymous
Shenton at it again…can this man ever finish a project. He’ll probably just stick an advertising hoarding on it for five years and do nothing, like he did on Chorlton Street
By Steve
Pay your suppliers who supported your project!
By Anonymous