Tours

MEDIACITYUK

MediaCityUK is the new home for BBC North, ITV, Coronation Street, SIS and the University of Salford. Located at Salford Quays on the banks of Manchester’s historic ship canal, MediaCityUK is being delivered by The Peel Group, through private investment of more than £650 million.

Peel’s vision, supported by a wide range of public and private partners, is for MediaCityUK to become a global hub for innovation and content creation.

This bespoke community – designed around the specific needs of the media and creative industries – features a wide range of flexible commercial office space; one of the biggest HD studio complexes in Europe; 378 apartments; a hotel and a brand new tram stop at the heart of a spectacular waterfront public piazza.

The initial phase of MediaCityUK spans 36 acres but there is the potential to develop up to 200 acres of Peel land holdings in the long-term, depending in the demands of media businesses.

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Thursday
T1 (Session 2) / T8 (Session 3)
Friday
T14 (Session 5)

NOMA

The Co-operative Group, the world’s largest consumer co-operative, will from September 2012 call Manchester’s newest landmark its home.

The tour of the new Head Office will take you into the fantastic 328,000 sq ft building as it nears completion, offering visitors the chance to view its unique design and hear about the industry leading construction programme that is delivering a building seen as the biggest single expression of The Co-operative’s values to date.

The Head Office, built by BAM Construction UK, will be one of the most sustainable commercial buildings in Europe and one of the first in the UK to be built to BREEAM ‘Outstanding’ specification. The project forms the first phase of NOMA, the 20 acre mixed-use redevelopment of Manchester city centre, set to deliver Grade A new build and refurbished office space alongside retail, residential and leisure opportunities with four acres of new open public space for the city.

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Thursday
T2 (Session 2) / T9 (Session 3)
Friday
T15 (Session 5)

SPINNINGFIELDS

Spinningfields is the most significant Grade A office development in Manchester and the largest regional city centre office scheme in the UK. With a total investment of £1.5 billion Spinningfields comprises 4.6 million sq ft mixed-use development between the River Irwell and Deansgate – one of Manchester’s main thoroughfares.

It has a combination of world-class architecture and inviting contemporary public space, with a vitality that comes from its exciting mix of offices, retail, restaurants, bars and living space and has attracted prestigious tenants including; RBS, NatWest, HSBC, The Bank of New York Mellon, Pinsent Masons, Deloitte, Barclays Bank and BDO LLP.

The tour will focus on three buildings: 3 Hardman Street, 1 The Avenue and the Civil Justice Centre.

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Thursday
T3 (Session 2) / T10 (Session 3)
Friday
T16 (Session 5)

CIVIC COMPLEX

Manchester City Council is spearheading the transformation of St Peter's Square into a world-class public space. At the heart of this regeneration project is the £155 million Town Hall Complex transformation programme, with two ambitiousgoals of delivering higher quality and more accessible services, whilst preserving and enhancing historic, civic buildings and spaces for future generations.

The overall programme consists of:

• The extensive refurbishment of the 33,000 sq m Grade II* listed Town Hall Extension
• The extensive refurbishment and remodelling of the Grade II* listed Central Library
• The regeneration of St Peter's Square through an international design competition
• The replacement of Elisabeth House with a major new office building - One St Peter's Square
• New transport interchange as part of the Second City Crossing

This tour offers delegates the opportunity to learn more about the City Council’s overall project plans and have a fascinating behind-the-scenes look at the work taking place in the Town Hall Extension and Central Library, which are at a mid-construction stage. Delegates will also hear about Argent and the GMPVF’s ‘One St Peter’s Square’, which comprises 273,000 sq ft of Grade A, BREEAM Excellent office space, on site now for completion in 2014.

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Thursday
T4 (Session 2) / T11 (Session 3)
Friday
T17 (Session 5)

EAST MANCHESTER (GMP plus SHARP Project)

Central Park is being developed by Ask:Goodman as the UK’s first large scale Urban Business Park featuring its own dedicated transport interchange, in a JV formed between Ask Developments and Goodman, in partnership with New East Manchester. Over 700,000 sq ft of development has now been delivered.

In 2007, Greater Manchester Police (GMP) selected Central Park to form the cornerstone of its property strategy and a 242,000 sq ft highly sophisticated Force Headquarters office facility was completed in April 2011. The six storey building with glass and stone facades sits within a six acre plot whilst on an adjacent site, a contemporary 125,242 sq ft Divisional HQ police station completed in October 2011.

Based in the electronics company Sharp’s old warehouse adjacent to Central park , The Sharp Project provides low cost spaces for creative companies in the media and digital content sectors, providing easy access to high end, cutting edge technology.

Owned by Manchester City Council and overseen by New East Manchester Ltd, The Sharp Project is delivering affordable business space for small, creative companies provided through a range of office, production and workshop accommodation. This includes the innovative converted shipping containers, which can be picked up on short-term leases as their number increase or decrease as necessary.

The Sharp Project is seen as a “growbag” environment that will bring together small and medium sized businesses with national and international production companies, providing the opportunity for them to interact in a creative melting pot set up to encourage the exchange of ideas, work and labour.

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Thursday am only
T5 (Session 2)

NORTHERN QUARTER

The Northern Quarter in Manchester is well known as the city’s centre of alternative and bohemian culture. It is also home to a number of office developments that offer a significant departure from the institutional norm, whilst maintaining the fundamental ethos of the BCO Guide to Specification.

This tour will provide delegates the opportunity to tour three separate buildings within five minutes walk of each other:

1. BDP’s HQ building at Piccadilly Basin
The BDP Studio, designed by BDP Architects, is recognised as the first naturally ventilated office building in Manchester to achieve a BREEAM ‘Excellent’ rating and has also been certified as a carbon neutral development. The design embraces a number of key sustainable features.

2. Carver’s Warehouse at Piccadilly Basin
Carver’s Warehouse is the city’s oldest surviving warehouse and the only stone built one within Manchester city centre. Restored and converted to offices in 2008 it ranks as one of the most important buildings in Manchester’s Industrial Heritage. The building’s potential to provide high quality office accommodation with great character has been realised.

3. The Hive, Lever Street
The Hive is an 80,000 sq ft office building delivered by Argent in partnership with Manchester City Council. Though planned in 2005, The Hive stands as an example of a post-recession, naturally ventilated BREEAM ‘Excellent’ office building for the future.

Do these buildings represent the future of office design in post-recession Britain?

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Thursday only
T6 (Session 2)

PICCADILLY PLACE

Located on what was previously a series of at grade public car parks, Piccadilly Place, now represents one of the key transformed, and highly sustainable iconic areas of Manchester.

Developed by Argent and Carlyle, Piccadilly Place is a truly mixed use scheme incorporating offices, a high quality hotel, residential and active ground floor uses. 3 and 4 Piccadilly Place have been designed to the highest standard providing in excess of 300,000 sq ft of Grade A BREEAM ‘Excellent’ office space located adjacent to the city’s major transport hub.

Delegates will learn how this development has evolved to be one of Manchester’s most successful new office quarters.

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Thursday only
T7 (Session 2)

ROCHDALE MBC CIVIC OFFICES

The ambition of regenerating the town centre, recent austerity measures and substantial financial cuts faced by Rochdale Metropolitan Borough Council challenged them to consider how best to use their building assets in a more efficient and cost effective manner.

Rochdale MBC made the bold decision to invest in a new civic office which will actively promote the regeneration of the town centre and act as a catalyst for much-needed private investment to help the town’s transition into a role model for the 21st Century.

The new BREEAM ‘Excellent’ building will have a customer services centre, a state of the art library as well as office space for Council staff and partners. It has been designed to maximise efficiency in terms of occupational densities, reduce running costs and create best-practice workplace opportunities to enable a range of council services to operate efficiently from a single new facility.

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Thursday pm only
T12 (Session 3)

NEW YORK STREET

City Tower is a true mixed use development constructed in the 1960’s; it comprises a 225,000 sq ft, 30 storey office tower, 280 bed Ramada Hotel, a 15,000 sq ft gym and 28 retail units. Bruntwood will outline how an investment of £40 million transformed the estate, taking office rents up to £20 per sq ft and near full occupancy which will be followed by a tour.

In addition to a tour of City Tower, Bruntwood will also outline how, in partnership with Manchester City Council, they undertook works to the public realm that links City Tower to their new development designed by Denton Corker Marshall, 1 New York Street. Completed in 2009, 1 New York Street comprises 104,000 sq ft of BREEAM ‘Excellent’ Grade A office accommodation with 4,500 sq ft of retail. DCM will be on hand to explain their design ethos.

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Thursday pm only
T13 (Session 3)

HISTORIC CITY

For two thousand years Manchester has been a special place. History tells us how its strategic location, its reputation for getting things done and its surprisingly rich cultural life have been driving factors for hundreds of years: in 1538 Manchester was described as the premier town in Lancashire with its own trading hall, beginning in the 1750’s the Industrial Revolution saw the transformation of Manchester to the world’s first industrial city and in the 19th century Manchester, by now a great international mercantile city, became a prime mover in national politics, government reform, economics and trade.

In the mid-twentieth century Manchester’s economic base declined, and so some thirty years ago the city set about re-inventing itself. This regeneration, based on a long-established culture of openness, pragmatism and multi-faceted skills, continues today. Our short walk will describe some of the historic places, people and events that have shaped this dynamic city.

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Friday only
T18 (Session 5)