Etihad Campus, Stadium Development and Collar Site

[somapop]

In for an interesting start to the new year news wise.
Good take on that Apollo (O2) in Ardwick. Looking like it will be a 'smorgasbord' of a few things mentioned in this lengthy thread...concert venue/hotel/shops/leisure venue (tech based).
Was hoping to hear about the 'Project Tomorrow' major project during the last few months, but that too has fallen silent. Wondering if it's somehow linked to any of the leisure/entertainment plans for the collar site?

 

[jrb]

In for an interesting start to the new year news wise.
Good take on that Apollo (O2) in Ardwick. Looking like it will be a 'smorgasbord' of a few things mentioned in this lengthy thread...concert venue/hotel/shops/leisure venue (tech based).
Was hoping to hear about the 'Project Tomorrow' major project during the last few months, but that too has fallen silent. Wondering if it's somehow linked to any of the leisure/entertainment plans for the collar site?

This is the latest new on Project Tomorrow, from Business Desk North West, 18th of December.

From the Businessdesk

Tomorrow requirement expands to 250,000 sq ft
18th December 2013

THE scope of the long-awaited top secret Tomorrow venture has grown significantly since it was first announced.

Tomorrow, formerly known as Project Digital, was first officially unveiled in August 2012 when the agent Edwards & Co said a collaboration of global companies was bringing a groundbreaking technology to the city and had agreed terms on 180,000 sq ft at 20 locations.

Edwards & Co director Andrew Timms told TheBusinessDesk.com they are now looking at around 250,000 sq ft across 50 buildings around Greater Manchester.

Some are no longer on the list, such as One First Street and Manchester Science Park, while others have been added, including Manchester One in Portland Street, St Peter's Square in Stockport, and the not-yet-finished One St Peter's Square in Manchester.

The consortium also wants to base its European headquarters in Manchester and has a large requirement for London.

Referring to the 50 buildings, Mr Timms said: "We have terms agreed on the majority. We're waiting for the green light from the States and then we'll go into legals. We've not yet completed any leases."

Tomorrow will offer businesses an as yet undefined technology service which has taken long than expected to perfect.

Some of the buildings involved are: Manchester One, Portland Street; 54 Princess Street; Merchant's Warehouse, Castlefield; The Hive, 47 Lever Street; 1 New York Street; Chancery Place; Orange, MediaCityUK; The Peninsula Manchester; Riverside, New Bailey Street; 304 Bridgewater Place; Ocean House at Towers, Didsbury; Citylabs; 196 Deansgate; and St Peter's Square in Stockport.

My take on this. If details are due to be released in the coming Months, that's great news.

The Hotel and combined Casino would make sense. Can't see it being a stand alone Casino. The Hotel is a must. Would certainly be used by City staff and players, as well as People/fans coming to the matches. And the leisure destination/Etihad Campus, in the future. It's quite possible that there could be more than 1 Hotel, eventually.

As for the makeup of the campus. Like others have posted, Leisure destination, Hotel/s, concert venue/arena, conference centre, retail, and possible apartments, as the housing market has now picked up once again.(see below)

Muse completes PRS forward sale in Northern Quarter 16 Dec 2013, 14:03 Oxford-based Global Real Estate Investments has bought the entire residential block of 77 units in Muse Developments' latest phase of Smithfield Square, Manchester nearly one year before practical completion.

Muse Developments forward sold all the apartments at One Smithfield Square for an undisclosed sum.

The deal is the latest to recognise Manchester and the North West as a viable option for the emerging investment class of the private rented sector, following Sigma's deal for housing development in Salford and Liverpool with Kuwaiti-owned Gatehouse Bank last month.

Wes Erlam, senior development surveyor for Muse explains: "This is great news for the scheme and for Manchester. It's a sign that the Manchester market is now recovering and proving an attractive option for investors.

"All of the homes at Smithfield are now sold a year before completion - a fantastic result for Muse, our development partner Manchester City Council, and funding partner the Homes & Communities Agency. We still have 6,000 sq ft of ground floor commercial space available and look forward to complementing the scheme with a selection of retail and restaurant options.

" Andrew Lock, development director at GRE Assets, added: "This represents our first investment in Manchester, a city we firmly believe contains all the ingredients we're looking for - a strong economy, excellent transport links and world class university.

" One Smithfield Square is a mix of one, two and three-bedroom apartments. GRE will now rent the apartments at the scheme to the local market.

Muse has planning permission for an initial stage of shell restoration and refurbishment of the grade 2-listed building known locally as the Mackie Mayor, owned by Manchester City Council.

Eversheds advised Muse Developments. Construction is ongoing by contractor Galliford Try. The project was designed by Mark Weintraub Architecture & Design. Ryder is the project architect during delivery. - See more at: <a class="postlink" href="http://www.placenorthwest.co.uk/news/archive/14969-muse-completes-prs-forward-sale-in-northern-quarter.html#sthash.zKrtMIu1.dpuf" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;">http://www.placenorthwest.co.uk/news/ar ... tMIu1.dpuf</a>

There would be huge demand from private buyers and investors if apartments were built within or near the leisure destination/Etihad Campus.

 

[BertTrautmann'sParachute]

definitely closer to the pitch - cut from the planning app docs, left side is current, right side is with 3 new rows
[bigimg]http://stevenicklin.com/images/city/3NewRows.jpg[/bigimg]

I wonder if that is done so that we will still have 60k for CL matches?

Can we put the media boys there instead of kicking myself and other blue brethren out of 326

Amen to that!

 

[jrb]

The task at hand.

There will have to ne some serious investment and proposals/buildings to fill the land around the stadium.

Good night fellow Blues. :-)<br /><br />-- Mon Dec 30, 2013 12:48 am --<br /><br />Airviews news updates have been added.

The bridge. <a class="postlink" href="http://www.airviews.info/etihad_campus_bridge.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;">http://www.airviews.info/etihad_campus_bridge.html</a>

 

[petrusha]

I doubt there'll be a casino, or at any rate a pretty small-scale one at best, if all the previous information about a family friendly attraction was accurate. And Apollo Entertainment were sniffing around hoping to agree a deal for a casino and lounge-style concert venue for the site as early as 2009. If that was seriously in the plans, it would surely be up by now?

I believe that eventually there will be a decent-sized casino in East Manchester. It just won't be on or adjacent to the Etihad Campus and not in a JV City are involved in. I believe that the collar site development and who the main partners are will make a statement about MCFC and its values; I suspect that the key tenant will also become a major sponsor of MCFC. Our owners are very keen to stress the family aspect of the club and to play a role in educating kids. I therefore see the attraction having that kind of slant. A casino is very definitely not the message they want to convey unless things have changed in a big way very recently.

 

[JGL07]

The new kippax was a good design. There were plans to re-build all of Maine rd in the same style which would have been a very impressive stadium, they were dropped when the CoMS negotiations got underway.

The new Kippax was a total disaster of a design. It was absolutely massive yet held little over 10,000. The top tier had had about two rows of seats if I recall correctly.

Rebuilding Maine Road with that design replicated all round would still have left the stadium no bigger than 40,000 seats.

I seem to recall Franny trying to stop work to redesign the Kippax but they were forced to continue with the flawed Swales concept because of urgency.

 

[AJ71]

The new kippax was a good design. There were plans to re-build all of Maine rd in the same style which would have been a very impressive stadium, they were dropped when the CoMS negotiations got underway.

The new Kippax was a total disaster of a design. It was absolutely massive yet held little over 10,000. The top tier had had about two rows of seats if I recall correctly.

Rebuilding Maine Road with that design replicated all round would still have left the stadium no bigger than 40,000 seats.

I seem to recall Franny trying to stop work to redesign the Kippax but they were forced to continue with the flawed Swales concept because of urgency.

I agree it was a poor design (not as bad as the Platt Lane mind), but wasn't the plan for a redeveloped Maine Road to hold about 47k? Also I thought Franny's gripe with Swales original design was more to do with a lack of corporate facilities, which I think he did alter to get more in, I could be wrong though. Your right about the 3rd tier, that was a waste and I could never understand why they didn't continue the build into the North stand / Platt Lane corners.

 

[Chancy Termites]

The new kippax was a good design. There were plans to re-build all of Maine rd in the same style which would have been a very impressive stadium, they were dropped when the CoMS negotiations got underway.

The new Kippax was a total disaster of a design. It was absolutely massive yet held little over 10,000. The top tier had had about two rows of seats if I recall correctly.

Rebuilding Maine Road with that design replicated all round would still have left the stadium no bigger than 40,000 seats.

I seem to recall Franny trying to stop work to redesign the Kippax but they were forced to continue with the flawed Swales concept because of urgency.

When it was announced, there were going to be carpets and lifts and all that kind of jazz - pretty sure it was Franny Lee who said that. Reality must have hit home some time after.

 

[JoeMercer'sWay]

The new kippax was a good design. There were plans to re-build all of Maine rd in the same style which would have been a very impressive stadium, they were dropped when the CoMS negotiations got underway.

The new Kippax was a total disaster of a design. It was absolutely massive yet held little over 10,000. The top tier had had about two rows of seats if I recall correctly.

Rebuilding Maine Road with that design replicated all round would still have left the stadium no bigger than 40,000 seats.

I seem to recall Franny trying to stop work to redesign the Kippax but they were forced to continue with the flawed Swales concept because of urgency.

I agree it was a poor design (not as bad as the Platt Lane mind), but wasn't the plan for a redeveloped Maine Road to hold about 47k? Also I thought Franny's gripe with Swales original design was more to do with a lack of corporate facilities, which I think he did alter to get more in, I could be wrong though. Your right about the 3rd tier, that was a waste and I could never understand why they didn't continue the build into the North stand / Platt Lane corners.

3rd tier was just corporate IIRC.

 

[petrusha]

I agree it was a poor design (not as bad as the Platt Lane mind), but wasn't the plan for a redeveloped Maine Road to hold about 47k? Also I thought Franny's gripe with Swales original design was more to do with a lack of corporate facilities, which I think he did alter to get more in, I could be wrong though. Your right about the 3rd tier, that was a waste and I could never understand why they didn't continue the build into the North stand / Platt Lane corners.

Didn't the third tier house a lounge with the two rows of seats outside for those enjoying the hospitality to go out and watch the game?

From memory the capacity of the new Kippax stand was around 12K. But the plans were cobbled together in haste because Franny didn't take over until the February and the old Kippax closed for good three months later. Swales's plans for the new stand were ripped up but the new ones would have been better had the new board had more time to get their act together. There was a vague plan eventually to go up to somewhere north of 45K by building all the way round but the chance to go to the Commonwealth Stadium meant that they were never going to take any steps towards expanding further until that was sorted out.

The Platt Lane end as redeveloped by Swales did contain executive boxes, but the capacity was only around 5K, which was fairly pathetic. It should have had another tier on top for matchday punters but we presumably didn't have the cash. Lee was particularly keen to build more executive facilities to generate new revenue because Swales had no commercial operation to speak of (it was licensed out to Eddie Phillips for £60K when other clubs were starting to make millions from this source of income).

PS - As someone says above, Franny tried desperately to have us exempted from the requirement to go all-seater in 1994 to give himself another year to do the plans. The PL wouldn't allow it (understandably, given that everyone else had to stick to that requirement).