The race to find a development partner for University of Manchester’s £1.5bn innovation district has started.
ID Manchester will take shape on the University of Manchester’s North Campus site and will be a ‘trailblazing neighbourhood’ with the potential to create over 6,000 new jobs.
Professor Dame Nancy Rothwell, President and Vice-Chancellor of The University of Manchester, said: ”ID Manchester will create a new, world-class innovation district situated in the heart of Manchester and alongside the University, where we will nurture the next generation of game-changing businesses and bring huge economic benefits to our city region and beyond.”
The University has strong record working with global companies including Rolls Royce, the BBC, Siemens 海角视频, Colgate Palmolive, Unilever and GlaxoSmithKline (GSK).
Since 2004, it has contributed £746m to the economy through nurturing and developing businesses spinning-out of its research and development facilities.
Since the plans were unveiled at the international property exhibition MIPIM early this year, the University has increased the available development space for ID Manchester to 4 million square feet and updated indicative development plans include; 2.6 million sq ft of new work space and three acres of high-quality public realm.
Diana Hampson, director of estates at The University of Manchester said: “Our vision for ID Manchester was warmly received at MIPIM and since then we’ve hosted several open days, attended by around 120 people representing developers and investors.
“We have taken time to refine our proposition to enable interested partners to really understand the extent and scale of our ambition.
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“ID Manchester will be a unique new neighbourhood.
“Our vision draws on Manchester’s eco-system 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.”
As part of the plans the 650,000 sq ft Grade II listed Sackville Street Building will be re-purposed.
The University currently occupies the £60m Masdar Building, home to the Graphene Engineering Innovation Centre, and the Manchester Institute of Biotechnology at the south end of the site but is looking for a partner to develop the remaining c.18 acres of the site.
Bids are invited across the globe.
The process will take around 12 months with a partner announcement being made in autumn 2020.