Leading property figure hails rise of a ‘great city’ from ashes of IRA bomb

ONE of the most senior and influential figures in Manchester’s office real estate scene has hailed the work of city leaders in the wake of the IRA bomb blast which struck 20 years ago today (June 15).

Peter Gallagher, director of national offices at Colliers International in Manchester, told TheBusinessDesk: “June 15 1996 might have been one of the darkest days in the city but it also marked the beginning of the best of times.”

At the time of the bomb, Gallagher was director and head of agency at the Manchester office of commercial property consultancy Dunlop Heywood.

He said: “Denied access to our Deansgate offices for weeks whilst the clear-up and immediate repairs were done, we set up a mirror site within hours and manned a round the clock helpline matching displaced businesses with vacant property.

“We worked together to get the city going again and I remember it didn’t even occur to us to charge a single fee for that work.”

Gallagher described how Manchester City Council led the regeneration process from day one and “with his trademark tireless energy, Howard Bernstein (chief executive, now Sir Howard) began honing and employing skills that would become his tradecraft over the following decades.”

He went on: “His objective was simple – to bring in the private sector investment and partnerships that would drive the process whilst the city used its influence to enable it.

“He set up a task force with a simple invitation to the world – come and be part of an opportunity to transform one of the great cities of Northern England into a thriving and cosmopolitan European city full of new energy and dynamism.

“To mark the 2000 Millennium a brochure was published called ‘The Changing Face’. In it we recorded work in progress and the challenges still remaining.
“It is telling that even with all the effort and support, much of it was written in the future tense.

“We told how redeveloped retail spaces around M&S’s new flagship store were beginning to attract top ‘new name’ retailers to the city.

“We told how Manchester’s already famous club scene was being joined by a new wave of café-bar and celebrity chef restaurants – adding to the energetic spirit of a city where we work hard and play hard.

“We described how the 2002 Commonwealth Games, the opening of the new Conference Centre and a raft of big name hotels arriving were starting to confirm Manchester’s place on the tourist map as a major European destination, for business and pleasure.

“We also marked the point at which the city centre became not only a place to work but also an attractive and vibrant place to live, and the moment Manchester arrived on the horizon of the institutional and international investors who would do so much to shape it in future.

“Two years later it was a very different brochure that marked the completion of the first phase of redevelopment.

“Again it is telling that this time it was mostly a story told in breath-taking images of sophisticated luxury brand retailing, a diverse and exciting leisure scene, photographs of elegant new hotels, restaurants and stunning new public realm.

“It told the story of a city with a new culture and a sure vision of its destiny as a 24 hr. world class destination. It also recorded a tenfold increase in the number of people then living in the city from the time of the bomb.

“June 15t 1996 might have been one of the darkest days in the city but it also marked the beginning of the best of times.

“A moment the city’s civic leaders and private sector partners came together in a model that was to become the envy of the UK. I am proud to have lived through such times and the place my city has become.”

Click here to sign up to receive our new South West business news...
Close