Etihad Campus, Stadium and Collar Site Development Thread

gkmcfc said:
Attended a supporters club meeting last night in Alkrington attended by representatives of the club who did a Q&A and there were some very interesting bits the came up:

1. The club will be redeveloping the North Stand and are looking at the prospect of redeveloping it as a single tier stand!!
2. There are plans for a new larger superstore although this will still be a standalone rather than incorporated into the new stand.
3. City Square to relocated as part of the redevelopment, will be made larger, with more food and drink concessions, and be partially covered.
4. Smaller fanzones around the south end of the ground.
5. multi storey car parks to take up the slack when land around the collar site is redeveloped.
6. The lights on top of the spikes are very expensive to replace - damage caused by birds!
7. Collar site to feature varied retail and food outlets alongside University buildings. Development of these are to be such as not to effect the imposing nature of the stadium.

The club will continue to do things not seen at other grounds and work for some of the up and coming developments could begin in the next 18 months subject to the relevant approvals/consultations..
Click to expand...
I wondered what Pete Bradshaw would have to say last night.
 
Couple of interesting snippets from Business Desk North West.

Including other property, transport, etc, developments around Gtr Manchester.

Click on the link for the rest of the article.

1. Eddie Smith, strategic director of development at Manchester City Council, revealed at the event that the authority would not proceed with a residential redevelopment of Ancoats Central retail park.

The authority is now having a rethink about its plans for the Great Ancoats Street site, which is the city council’s ‘biggest ever acquisition’.

2. In east Manchester the council is working with the Abu Dhabi investors on plans including what he described as ‘the world’s first sports business park’, which will be the home of Manchester Metropolitan University’s new sports campus.


http://www.thebusinessdesk.com/nort...ar-chest-will-help-take-major-industry-payers
 
jrb said:
Couple of interesting snippets from Business Desk North West.

...

1. Eddie Smith, strategic director of development at Manchester City Council, revealed at the event that the authority would not proceed with a residential redevelopment of Ancoats Central retail park.

The authority is now having a rethink about its plans for the Great Ancoats Street site, which is the city council’s ‘biggest ever acquisition’.

2. In east Manchester the council is working with the Abu Dhabi investors on plans including what he described as ‘the world’s first sports business park’, which will be the home of Manchester Metropolitan University’s new sports campus.
Click to expand...


Interesting. Marty Edelman said at MIPIM that, with the arrival of MMU and the Rugby League, this would be the world's largest urban sports campus. Now we have a suggestion of the world's first sports business park.

I note that Eddie Smith's language in point 2 above suggests that the sports business park (whatever this proves to be) will also house MMU. Now, unless plans have changed, MMU's site is meant to be away from the Collar Site and will be to the west and north-west of the stadium, expanding onto land outside the current Campus to the west now occupied by industrial units. So sports science and R&D businesses (or whatever accompanies MMU) will also presumably be there.

I think there's still a fit between the above and the previously rumoured plans for the northern part of the Collar Site. That involved exhibition and conferencing space with flexible configurations to enable a transformation into small and medium-sized (from 3K to 6K) indoor arenas to host sporting events (e.g. basketball) and concerts. That leaves space for an attraction plus associated leisure and retail outlets on the rest of the Collar Site. Edelman intimated at MIPIM that they've now had significant serious interest about this space. Getting thousands of people on site day in, day out, is probably key to unlocking that potential and that's what the urban sports campus and business park will do.

The RFL is going to become a tenant of the regional athletics centre. Query - will that mean that venue being reconfigured, with perhaps a replacement athletics track elsewhere (probably off-Campus but nearby) for local clubs and community/schools use? (Such a move, to Beswick IIRC, was previously intimated when the master plan involved commercial activity to the north west of the stadium).

Also interesting that MCC and ADUG jointly completed the purchase of Ancoats Retail Park only in November 2017, so less than 6 months ago, with a very definite intention to pursue a primarily residential development: https://www.placenorthwest.co.uk/news/council-buys-central-retail-park-for-redevelopment/. Such a quick volte-face is ostensibly a surprise. The change of plan means we now have ten spare acres owned by MCFC and ADUG a mile from the stadium that they don't want for a Manchester Life initiative. Can we speculate that it might be an attractive site to which certain suitable businesses might relocate in order to create an expanded Campus?

Anyway, it all seems more positive than it has for quite a while. Once policy changed in Abu Dhabi in about 2012 to require projects such as this to prioritise paying their way over making a statement, there were always problems attracting the right kind of partners in the prevailing economic climate. It now looks as though they've probably managed to put together a set of plans for the area that will, as developments gather pace, attract viable tenants for the Collar Site, and that gives us grounds for genuine optimism for the next several years.
 
petrusha said:
Interesting. Marty Edelman said at MIPIM that, with the arrival of MMU and the Rugby League, this would be the world's largest urban sports campus. Now we have a suggestion of the world's first sports business park.

I note that Eddie Smith's language in point 2 above suggests that the sports business park (whatever this proves to be) will also house MMU. Now, unless plans have changed, MMU's site is meant to be away from the Collar Site and will be to the west and north-west of the stadium, expanding onto land outside the current Campus to the west now occupied by industrial units. So sports science and R&D businesses (or whatever accompanies MMU) will also presumably be there.

I think there's still a fit between the above and the previously rumoured plans for the northern part of the Collar Site. That involved exhibition and conferencing space with flexible configurations to enable a transformation into small and medium-sized (from 3K to 6K) indoor arenas to host sporting events (e.g. basketball) and concerts. That leaves space for an attraction plus associated leisure and retail outlets on the rest of the Collar Site. Edelman intimated at MIPIM that they've now had significant serious interest about this space. Getting thousands of people on site day in, day out, is probably key to unlocking that potential and that's what the urban sports campus and business park will do.

The RFL is going to become a tenant of the regional athletics centre. Query - will that mean that venue being reconfigured, with perhaps a replacement athletics track elsewhere (probably off-Campus but nearby) for local clubs and community/schools use? (Such a move, to Beswick IIRC, was previously intimated when the master plan involved commercial activity to the north west of the stadium).

Also interesting that MCC and ADUG jointly completed the purchase of Ancoats Retail Park only in November 2017, so less than 6 months ago, with a very definite intention to pursue a primarily residential development: https://www.placenorthwest.co.uk/news/council-buys-central-retail-park-for-redevelopment/. Such a quick volte-face is ostensibly a surprise. The change of plan means we now have ten spare acres owned by MCFC and ADUG a mile from the stadium that they don't want for a Manchester Life initiative. Can we speculate that it might be an attractive site to which certain suitable businesses might relocate in order to create an expanded Campus?

Anyway, it all seems more positive than it has for quite a while. Once policy changed in Abu Dhabi in about 2012 to require projects such as this to prioritise paying their way over making a statement, there were always problems attracting the right kind of partners in the prevailing economic climate. It now looks as though they've probably managed to put together a set of plans for the area that will, as developments gather pace, attract viable tenan
ts for the Collar Site, and that gives us grounds for genuine optimism for the next several years.
Click to expand...
The Ancoats Retail Park is about 1 to 1.5 km away from the ground though. A bit far? The non-football stuff interests me only insofar as it facilitates the ground expansion. A hotel and leisure complex linked to the North Stand sounds plausible. Plenty of potential visitors from overseas blues and visiting fans.
 
Perhaps we could have a tunnel from the Hotel to the ground and put all the "Visitors" in one newly developed area and call it the Johnny Come Lately Stand? :)
 
Kinkys Left Foot said:
Perhaps we could have a tunnel from the Hotel to the ground and put all the "Visitors" in one newly developed area and call it the Johnny Come Lately Stand? :)
Click to expand...
its nearly 15 years now in the etihad and its still the same local based city fans sat around me,just thought i would point that out,
 
ped said:
its nearly 15 years now in the etihad and its still the same local based city fans sat around me,just thought i would point that out,
Click to expand...

Agree with this. Think it needs to be remembered.
 
Marvin said:
The Ancoats Retail Park is about 1 to 1.5 km away from the ground though. A bit far? The non-football stuff interests me only insofar as it facilitates the ground expansion. A hotel and leisure complex linked to the North Stand sounds plausible. Plenty of potential visitors from overseas blues and visiting fans.
Click to expand...

You need to read the penultimate paragraph again. He is obviously alluding to a relocation of Asda to Ancoats.
 
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