A cornerstone of Manchester’s growth has been the city’s ambition and willingness to approve, develop and deliver the sort of large-scale projects which go beyond simple regeneration. By prioritising complex, wide-ranging developments, Manchester has created neighbourhoods, areas and districts which make the city more than the sum of its parts.
The likes of Mayfield, the Great Ducie Street regeneration area, the Jackson Street Framework, the Northern Gateway and more showcase this side of Manchester’s development – and all of them are doing their part to create a Manchester which is a 21st century, global destination for business and people.
However, the one which most accurately shows all the best qualities of this modern city might well be ID Manchester.
The ID Manchester project is a £1.5bn, 18-acre remodelling of a huge part of Manchester city centre, right next to the central Piccadilly Station. The project is led by the University of Manchester and has been made possible by the institution relocating its teaching and academic research functions to the neighbouring £1bn new campus.
The purpose of ID Manchester is to provide a new innovation district in the heart of Manchester which will serve as a hub for the high level research, development and discovery which will help propel Manchester forward in the coming decades.
Diana Hampson, Director of Estates and Facilities at The University of Manchester, said “ID Manchester will be a unique new neighbourhood. Our vision draws on Manchester’s ecosystem of ideas, discovery, research and development, and ID Manchester will provide the canvas on which all those strands can come together to take urban regeneration to a whole new level. ID Manchester will be where our most valuable discoveries today, are tried, tested and developed into the technology, buildings and commerce of tomorrow.”
The available development space for ID Manchester is close to 4 million sqft and the plans include:
- 2.6 million sqft of new work space
- Three acres of high-quality public realm
The site also benefits from existing green space and the unique feature of the 650,000 sqft Grade II-listed Sackville Street Building, which offers a fantastic opportunity for repurposing.
Professor Dame Nancy Rothwell, President and Vice-Chancellor of The University of Manchester, said: “The University is committed to the delivery of ID Manchester and our ambition to create the innovation capital of Europe is unwavering.”
It goes without saying that ID Manchester will have major economic benefits for Manchester. The University has provided almost £750m to the city’s economy in the last 15 years, and developments like this ensure that there is much more to come.
The University has strong track record working with some of the biggest and most impressive multi-national companies in the world, including Rolls Royce, the BBC, BP, ARM, Boots, National Grid, Colgate Palmolive, Siemens, Unilever, AstraZeneca and GlaxoSmithKline (GSK).
By creating a unique innovation district for exactly this kind of partnership, it is anticipated that there is much more to come. To begin, ID Manchester will directly provide an additional 6,000 jobs to the city in exactly the kind of high-tech, specialised areas which offer long-term stability and will attract the most highly trained graduates to Manchester.
This type of hub will not only attract more international business to Manchester, it will also act as a springboard for homegrown companies which will have the perfect place to develop and grow – before branching out across the UK and the world.
An example of how this works can be seen with graphene. Originally discovered at the University of Manchester, graphene is a revolutionary material with properties that are predicted to revolutionise the world. It is now being used in hundreds of products around the world and Manchester has its own National Graphene Institute to further develop the material.
No one could have predicted the impact graphene would have, but what we can be sure of is that the conditions available in Manchester allowed the research which discovered it. By consolidating on this and promoting research and development even further, developments like ID Manchester will help Manchester once again create the future, and continue to shine a spotlight on the city.
And the more success it has – and the more economic benefits it brings – the more people will want to move to Manchester to be a part of it. This will create increased competition and demand for housing in the city centre within easy reach of ID Manchester. The city does not have enough housing as it is, with no prospect of enough being built anytime soon, and demand will only go up.
Developments such as Oxygen which are located only a 10-minute walk from ID Manchester are in the perfect location to benefit from this. The high end lifestyle on offer at the building – including market-leading facilities like a swimming pool, sauna, steam room, gymnasium, spin room, cinema room and more – make it the ideal home for the kind of people who will work at ID Manchester.
For more information about flats to buy in Manchester city centre, and getting ahead of the upcoming demand that developments like ID Manchester are bringing to the city, get in touch with our team today >>
