Bruntwood chief hails Manchester’s "unique strengths"

BRUNTWOOD founder Michael Oglesby has argued that Manchester remains as “the best place to be” in the North West despite envisaging a tough year for the commercial property sector.

Mr Oglesby, who is chairman of both his own firm and of the city’s inward investment agency, MIDAS,  said that it was “difficult to forecast anything but a tough trading year for us all in the North West”, but added that he believed that Manchester provided the best place tp take advantage of opportunities which may arise.

In recent years, Bruntwood has spread its operations from its home city into other major regional markets including Liverpool, Leeds, and Birmingham.

It currently owns around a fifth of the available commercial office space in Manchester city centre, and has been named as developer partner for two key projects on the city’s Oxford Road corridor – the £60m redevelopment of Manchester Business School’s campus and the creation of a new incubator building at the site of the former Royal Eye Hospital.

It is also on a shortlist of two to be the Co-operative’s development partner for its £800m NOMA scheme.

Mr Oglesby said: “I really do believe that Manchester has some unique core strengths and what we need to do is to seek these out and to build on them.  

He said the city provided a hub not only for the 2.5m people in Greater Manchester, but also for another 2.5m who live “within working and playing distance”.

“We have more graduates coming out of our Universities than in any other part of Europe and what we need to do is to ensure that we retain these.  We need to concentrate on skilled jobs and this is where we really have some core and unique strengths and, if we can attract these, others will be required to provide service.  

“As a region, we understand the importance of our mid-size and new start up companies and our unique Growth Hub provides access to finance and all-round help for sustainable growth.”