Ex-BBC site could support 6,000 jobs

MANCHESTER City Council wants the former BBC site on Oxford Road to support 6,000 high end jobs.

The council’s executive is set to approve a strategic framework for the site today which has been drawn up by Deloitte Real Estate.

It details the city’s ambitions for the six-acre plot which it sees as a key part of its plans for “The Corridor” – a strip of commercial, cultural and education facilities running from Manchester University into the city that are at the heart of Manchester’s knowledge economy.

It wants to see offices that will attract firms working in science, healthcare and the digital and creative industries, and says Manchester University’s graphene hub, which is being built, could provide “further downstream opportunities”. It is opposed to student accommodation but backs a hotel, “high quality” residential, “small format” retail and a private hospital. It also suggests more is made of the River Medlock which flows through the back of the site.

Manchester-based Realty Estates bought the site from the BBC for around £10m and has since demolished the old studios and is operating the site as a temporary surface car park.

Last year it drew up plans for a 800,000 sq ft mixed-use development involving commercial, leisure, offices, residential and retail elements. The firm’s vision included a hotel, a supermarket and residential accommodation both for students and the open market. It also has a new civic space which can be used for exhibitions, broadcast events and cultural performances.

The council said: “The redevelopment of the former BBC site is a key opportunity to renew and expand a major area of the city centre, and positively respond to the city’s growth agenda, and as such it could become one of the most significant opportunities for jobs and investment in the region for many years.

“Work undertaken previously in 2009 through a notional scheme, identified the potential to create over 6,000 full time equivalent jobs on the site when fully developed.”