Cornish: developer hunt is Airport City’s next task
MANCHESTER Airports Group chief executive Charlie Cornish has said that the key task for Airport City’s project team over the next 3-6 months is to select “one or two” developers to help bring the £800m project to life.
Speaking at the MIPIM property conference in Cannes, Mr Cornish said that the development team for the project would spend the next 12-18 months on a £27m programme to install the necessary infrastructure at the 150-acre site site, where it is planning to build around 5m sq ft of property over a 10-15 year period which could attract around 20,000 jobs to the area.
The Airport City plan, he said, had been developed over a three-year period and had “been subject to detailed scrutiny”.
“We’ve looked at the market in detail and we’re convinced that we have a really strong, viable commercial offering”.
University Hospitals of South Manchester (UHSM) chairman Felicity Goodey also spoke of the opportunities for its 200-acre proposed Medipark scheme, which also forms part of the Airport City enterprise zone.
The park will serve as a gateway for firms looking to trade with the “huge cluster of biotechnology and health-related companies already in Manchester”, she said.
The city has already been identified by the government of having a biotech cluster of international significance, she said, while GlaxoSmithkline had placed it in the “European super league”.
The 200-acre site has been assembled by UHSM joining its 35 acres of land holdings with 90 owned by Royal London Asset Management and 75 owned by south Manchester developer Bluemantle, alongside council and airport-owned land.
Ms Goodey said the Enterprise Zone status enjoyed by the proposed Medipark “means we can get to the head of the UKTI hit-list and have government support” when attracting overseas investors to the park.
Masterplanning for the Medipark is already underway by BDP and Urban Strategies, and talks are also well underway with potential funders as well as anchor tenants. The scheme is set to be launched in June and site preparation works will begin by the end of the year.
Ms Goodey described the Medipark as “a fantastic opportunity to create something that simply does not exist anywhere else in the UK”.
“There is no other site in the UK that can rival this,” she added.
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