Ainscow regeneration legacy will continue, vows sister Moya

THE family of well-known Manchester property mogul Carol Ainscow – credited with launching Canal Street’s first openly gay pub – says the property company launched in the aftermath of her death will continue regenerating the city’s historic buildings and brownfield sites.

Artisan Investments, now run by Ainscow’s sister Moya Ball, 63, is currently engaged in a £15m scheme to create 101 more apartments at Vulcan Mill, following investment from private equity companies and banks. Planning permission has been granted and work will start in spring 2017.

Phase one of the project has already seen 120 homes created at the mill.

Since Boltonian Ainscow arrived on the Manchester scene 20 years ago, the activities of her company attracted investment of more than £200m to regenerate many of Manchester’s landmark buildings.

The legacy has continued despite Ainscow’s original company Artisan Holdings going into administration in 2011 and her passing as a result of a brain tumour in 2013 at the age of 55.

Artisan has since been reborn with the company divided into five divisions – residential, design, property maintenance, leisure and commercial.

Of the original 170 people employed by Ainscow, 100 have been retained by the new company.

Projects which underlined the founder’s philosophy included schemes at Regency House, off Canal Street, Albion Mill on Pollard Street in Ancoats and Express Networks – the former newspaper headquarters – on Great Ancoats Street.

More recent developments in the Artisan portfolio include The Ainscow Hotel & Spa, a boutique hotel in Salford, which opened in 2014, and includes a cryotherapy spa used by Manchester’s celebrities, and The Block apart-hotel in Liverpool.

“What sets us apart from other developers is the passion with which we build and the way people have wanted to live in the spaces we’re creating,” said Ball, who is the managing director of Artisan Investments.

“The passion that Carol has 20 years ago still exists today. We believe in keeping the soul of the old buildings in Manchester. We don’t just do the work and sell them. We retain them and maintain them and make sure they are desirable places to live.

“We now have a very strong senior team which shares the values and passion for creating community driven spaces.”

Ball, who worked with her sister as construction, design and management co-ordinator in the original, alluded to Artisan’s determination to continue in the wake of a triple bereavement which hit the family.

“We lost Carol in 2013 and my son (Martin, 29) in August 2014, and my father (James) passed away in November 2014. I felt I had a broken heart that would never mend.

“But this side of the business keeps me going. We’ve got that passion to succeed. If I was a stay-at-home type of person I don’t think I would have been able to cope with the loss.”

Ball puts the demise of Ainscow’s original company down to the property crash in 2008 and has gained confidence recently despite the cautious lending environment which has emerged since.

“When I was asking for investment, it was not easy, and I thought it was because it was me,” she said. “But I now know that the banks and lending institutions were just being much more careful following the crash, and that is still going on now.”

Meanwhile, Artisan says it will be unaffected by an ongoing “gay divorce” battle being waged in the Court of Appeal by Ainscow’s former civil partner Helen Roocroft, 42, who is claiming a bigger slice of her alleged £6m fortune, having initially accepted £162,000 at the end of her 19-year relationship with the entrepreneur.

Ainscow did not make a will, and her elderly mother is entitled to her estate. The case is continuing.

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