Airport City plan set to fly at Manchester
Manchester Airport is moving ahead with plans for a multi-million pound business park on a 60-acre site next to the airport.
MAG Developments (MAG), the property and development arm of Manchester Airports Group, is confident there will be sufficient demand from international companies for the £600m development known as Airport City (pictured).
The proposed business park, on land north of Manchester Airport, is one of 4 new enterprise zones announced in the budget last month. MAG has been working on the Airport City plans for some time and are not as a result of the site being selected as an enterprise zone.
The ambitious scheme will include a large number of new office buildings along with units suitable for manufacturing companies. MAG believes the speculative development will be attractive to a range of national and international businesses and not just from the aviation industry.
Etihad Airways, the national airline of the United Arab Emirates, announced last month that it is to open a new call centre in offices on the airport campus. The new building is expected to accommodate approximately 160 staff.
Stephanie Mullenger, MAG’s business development director comments: “If you look at most business parks in the UK, you’ve got these futuristic offices, a few swans and a fountain, but no-one wants to work there. We want to create somewhere at the airport, probably for those middle and back office operations, where people really want to come and be part of.”
MAG anticipates that detailed planning applications will be ready to be submitted by the end of 2011, following a planned public consultation. Construction of the 1st phase could begin in 2012.
Urban Strategies, Drivers Jonas Deloitte and Jones Lang Lasalle have contributed to the preparation of the masterplan.
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