Bruntwood has announced that it has acquired the former BBC site on Oxford Road from Realty Estates.
Since the BBC’s move, the eight acre site, currently being used as a car park, was bought by Manchester based Realty Estates for around £10m.
They demolished the old studios and submitted plans for leisure facilities, offices, residential accommodation and retail units which would include a hotel and what it termed a civic space which could be used for exhibitions.
Yousef Tishbi of Realty Estates said “Having worked up the masterplan for the site with The City we are pleased to have sold to Bruntwood who, we are sure, with MSP, will deliver a scheme that will help further develop the city’s proposition to the science and technology sectors”.
The scheme proposed by Bruntwood will create a new community for business, science and innovation including 900,000 sq ft of commercial space as well as new public open space, retail, a hotel, car parking and high quality residential accommodation.
Bruntwood will announce its detailed site masterplan in due course incorporating its adjacent property; the Manchester Technology Centre.
Bruntwood Chief Executive Chris Oglesby said: “We have long seen this as a strategically important site for Bruntwood, linking our extensive city centre office portfolio with our science and technology interests at Corridor Manchester through Manchester Science Partnerships. We are looking forward to developing out a masterplan that will be truly transformational for this area of the city. The finished scheme, plus the central Corridor campus of MSP, Citylabs and Alderley Park represent a world class cluster of >3m sq ft of commercial space aimed at satisfying the incredible demand that Manchester is witnessing from these fast growing sectors of the economy.
So… the people working at this new development; where are they going to park?
City centre workers have been revelling in affordable and available parking at this site.
Public transport is still not adequate, despite the improvements over the past few years.
This development puts profit over people. But I’m sure we’ll all appreciate the inevitable Morrisons or Waitrose…