Manchester City Council and the Government Property Agency (GPA) have opened a joint consultation around emerging plans to redevelop the city’s former central retail park.
The consultation aims to gather feedback from local residents, businesses and other stakeholders that will help guide proposals to create a new government digital campus – delivered by the GPA – and a new city centre park space, delivered by the council.
The council agreed an updated Strategic Regeneration Framework (SRF) for the land in March 2023. This et out the high-level development principles for the site: To create low carbon commercial office space and high-quality, accessible green space to support continued economic growth in this part of Manchester’s city centre.
The GPA exchanged contracts to acquire five acres of the former central retail park in Ancoats from the city council in May this year, with a view to constructing a state-of-the-art government digital campus.
This new office complex in the city will bring together a number of Civil Service departments with a focus around digital skills.
Once complete, the campus will be home to around 7,000 civil servants, creating significant opportunities for employment and wider economic development.
Councillor Bev Craig, leader of Manchester City Council, said: “We are beginning to see the potential of this site unlocked and the plans being developed by the council and the GPA meet the ambitions we have for this important site … The new park will help meet demand for high-quality green space in the city centre and will complement other green investment – including Ancoats Green – in this neighbourhood.
“As ever, consultation is the opportunity for our residents to give us feedback on the emerging proposals and help guide this investment that will benefit Mancunians for years to come.”
Mark Bourgeois, interim chief executive at the GPA, added: “We are pleased to be working collaboratively with Manchester City Council on these plans to regenerate this important area of Manchester and we look forward to the input from city residents and businesses to help us deliver the optimum proposal.
“The GPA is also proud to be creating fantastic and sustainable workplaces to support the transformation of the Civil Service, and we are committed to growing its presence in Manchester, drawing on and helping to grow the city’s pool of talent.
“This proposed development, builds on the work the council and the GPA undertook last year in putting in place an updated Strategic Regeneration Framework, and the shared ambition to regenerate the Ancoats former retail site, creating employment and wider business opportunities, supported by the digital campus.”
The new park space is being designed in collaboration with landscape architects Planit-IE. According to the council, this will help meet the need for quality, attractive green space in the city centre – which will also open up access to the existing Cotton Field Park and Ancoats Marina.
The site will accommodate new walking routes, helping to link to other city centre active travel investment in Ancoats, Northern Quarter and out towards the Etihad Campus.
Detailed design work will continue following consultation to deliver a park space comparable in size to Ancoats Green, which is also currently undergoing redevelopment works.
Development across the rest of the site will be brought forward as a later development phase, the council says. The consultation closes on 23 September.
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