Octagon House to become high-tech centre in £8m refurbishment
THE former Manchester headquarters of United Utilities is to be transformed into a high-tech data centre and office complex connected to The Loop fibre network in an £8m deal.
The revamp is taking place at Octagon House in Hathersage Road. The building sits on a 2.8 acre site close to “The Corridor” in the Oxford Road and Upper Brook Street area of the city.
It is currently owned by property developer Richard Everton, who has been working on The Octagon Project for more than a year.
As part of the first phase of development, The Loop, Manchester’s unique fibre-optic network, will bring high-speed data connectivity to the 90,000 sq ft building, paving the way to accommodate a 350 rack, tier-3 datacentre, covering the entire first floor.
The datacentre, which will provide both dedicated hosting racks and Cloud services, is specifically aimed at the nearby educational and medical institutions, of the University of Manchester and the Central Manchester University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust.
The refurbishment is due for completion during late 2016, with the first phase of the datacentre operational by the end of 2015.
In line with the economic thrust behind the Corridor, the high quality office accommodation is aimed at organisations involved in the field of medical technology, research and innovation, which are starting to gravitate around the Central Manchester NHS Trust, as a centre of excellence in many healthcare disciplines.
This is evident from other forthcoming developments in the sector, such as the proposed new Nuffield hospital.
Everton said: “Our vision is for The Octagon to be integrated within and fully contribute to the future economic framework of the area.
“We are seeking to work closely with the City Council and all the Corridor partners to ensure this happens.
“Besides its many attributes it is fortuitous that the building is located on The Loop’s network so we can bring superb connectivity to our tenants. This will help give both the datacentre and our tenants’ businesses a distinct commercial edge in an increasingly competitive worldwide market.”
The Loop, which is part of Gamma Communications PLC, has its Network Operations Centre in Trafford Park, and employs more than 100 staff. It offers ultrafast connectivity right to the door for businesses close to more than 100 kilometres of fibre that stretches around the city of Manchester.
Ashley Griffiths, managing director of The Loop added: “This is going to be a fantastic facility in a great strategic location.
“The Octagon has tapped into an existing resource that ran right past its door and created the ability to bring fibre and cost effective, very high capacity internet connection direct to its tenants. The project will thus provide additional benefits to the wider business, academic, health and residential communities and it’s great to be a part of this.”
Before they relocated, United Utilities used to employ more than 600 people at the site.
