Oxford Road Corridor strategy launched with £1.9bn GVA potential
Plotting out its next decade, senior figures in the developing of Manchester’s Knowledge Quarter revealed their ambitions on Thursday for the one square mile-stretch just south of the city centre.
The strategy calls for a focus on health and life sciences, digital and technology, advanced materials, and creative industries. It emphasises the need for improved transport, public realm, and wayfinding alongside commercial and residential development.
If the Oxford Road Corridor collective can achieve its goals, it estimates that the strategy could create 15,800 jobs and generate £1.9bn in economic benefit.
It may only be one square mile, but Oxford Road Corridor punches well over its weight due to the partnership between Bruntwood, Manchester City Council, The University of Manchester, Manchester Metropolitan University, Manchester University Foundation Trust, and the Royal Northern College of Music.
Since banding together to create the Oxford Road Corridor group 20 years ago, this area has become the home to more than 104,000 jobs, generating £7.8bn in annual economic output.
Greater Manchester Mayor Bev Craig praised the work that had already been done on the corridor, but said she was eager to move faster in its growth.
“We are already globally competitive but we are not yet globally renowned,” she said.
To get there, University of Manchester president and vice-chancellor – and chair of the Oxford Road Corridor Board Duncan Ivison, academics need to embed themselves in business, translating their research into products.
The great universities of tomorrow, he contended, will “accelerate the point between discovery and impact”.
“To do that, we need ecosystems like the ones we have here,” he told the crowd at the launch event Thursday.
Bruntwood director of strategy Jessica Bowles emphasised that the developer’s initial forays into developing space on the corridor “required some bravery”, due to it being an entirely new market, she said that was no longer the case.
What is more, she emphasised the strength of the corridor, and Manchester, lies in its strong sense of place. She spoke about its “stickiness” and how the talent that studies in Manchester, developers their next great idea here, and stays here to grow it.
The strategy pinpointed several developments that will aid in this stickiness and help the corridor ramp up its activity:
- Sister: Hailed as “the most significant single development opportunity within the Corridor”, this University of Manchester and Bruntwood SciTech scheme will see the building of more than 2m sq ft of flexible workspace, labs, and residential and leisure
- Upper Brook Street: A 7.5 masterplan that would see hundreds of thousands of life science space delivered by Kadans Science Partner and Property Alliance Group and 2,000 student beds from Moda and McLaren
- Citylabs Campus: Extension of the Citylabs building that will focus on strengthening work in diagnostics, genomics, and medical technology
- Manchester Science Park: Greenheys redevelopment that will become the new home of UK Biobank
- Former Elizabeth Gaskell Campus: Nuffield Health’s site that is being transformed into buildings focused on commercialising health research
- First Street: Commercial and residential development at the former Salvation Army site by Manchester Metropolitan University’s Science and Engineering Campus
- Greenheys Lane West and Old Birley Street in Hulme: Glenbrook’s project to build a fully affordable housing complex of flats, maisonettes, and townhouses on a 2.75-acre site.
