THING OF THE WEEK
WATER PARK… Although as professionals, we stay firmly neutral on all planning applications, there are some projects that cross the desk where you think “oh yeah, LOVE to see that happen”. One such scheme proposed last year was at Albert Dock in Liverpool, for what’s basically an inflatable assault course. Now trading as the Adventure Dock aqua park, the attraction opened on 2 May and has already passed the 1,000 visitor mark. Will any property types dare to make this a fun alternative to the summer business event season? Go on, dare you.
WEDDING BELLS… In case anyone hadn’t noticed, there’s a wedding at the weekend. At Place Towers we have certainly been kept in the loop as the expected deluge of tenuous wedding-related promotional material lands: special offers at Southport restaurants; wedding workshops at the Metquarter; how to save money on a kitchen, even if you’re not Harry and Meghan… the list goes on. There’s even some taking the more highbrow approach including the University of Salford who have offered up expert comment on how the royal wedding shows the changing face of the honeymoon. Needless to say, your author shan’t be watching proceedings on Saturday – don’t they know there’s a game of football on?
BEYOND THE PALE… Not content with enraging spellcheckers everywhere with the spelling of Chill Factore, the building’s owners U+I have taken it a step further by renaming the area’s retail and leisure offering as BEYOND – note the all caps. The area, part of TraffordCity, has undergone a rebranding exercise ahead of a host of new leisure and retail units opening in 2019, although no specifics were offered when the company was contacted by Place North West. In fairness it is becoming an increasingly active area – alongside the ski slope and indoor sky diving we now have dinosaur-themed mini golf and an indoor adventure centre planned across the road – but we’re not quite sure whether the all-caps BEYOND is quite the right groove…
SCIENCE SNAPS… Registrations are open for both amateur and professional photographers to try their hand at Sci-Tech Daresbury’s Laboratory Photowalk competition. Supported by the Royal Photographic Society, the competition is taking place on 22 May, and normally off-limits areas including the Engineering Technology Centre, where engineers build parts for particle accelerators, will be opened up for photographers. Sci-Tech Daresbury has already supported the delivery of the Large Hadron Collider at CERN, and entrants to the photowalk have the opportunity to get up close to some of these cutting-edge scientific processes – and a £250 prize if your photo is picked as a winner. You can enter at https://stfcphotowalk2018.eventbrite.co.uk.
CRYPTOCURRENCY… Anyone fancying a flutter on the cryptocurrency market can now do just that after Manchester’s first Bitcoin ATM was installed at the Islington Wharf Building. The brainchild of property entrepreneur Paul Lajszczak, the ATM allows users to swap cash for up to £100k of Bitcoin per month, or £4,000 per day. According to Lajszczak there are only a few places where this technology exists in the UK, and the ATM is a first for the city. There are also plans to allow users to invest in property with cryptocurrency direct from the ATM via a crowdfunding platform, apparently bypassing banks altogether. If anyone fancies giving that a try, please let us know how it goes…
