The European Regional Development Fund has agreed to pump £1m into a scheme to transform a Victorian shopping arcade in Manchester into a high-tech business hub.
The like-for-like funding will be matched by developer Jersey Street Properties which owns the 120-year-old Clarence Arcade in Ashton-under-Lyne. As part of the revamp the building will be converted into super-fast, broadband-connected offices, meeting rooms and conference facilities.
“We see huge potential in Ashton and our substantial investment in transforming this beautiful building in to a state-of-the-art business centre is a testament to our confidence,” explained Jersey Street’s managing director Jake Ezair.
At one time Tameside’s only covered shopping venue, Clarence Arcade ran parallel with Stamford Street, at that time the town’s main shopping street, with a decorative entrance at each end. But as the area lost its attraction to post-First World War shoppers, so did the arcade and its fortunes declined. In recent years some of its ground floor shop units have been converted to offices, but much of the building remained neglected.
The EU-funded project will also include the installation of a glass atrium as a meeting space for business users. Work on the development will start next month, with the new centre slated for a spring, 2015, opening.
Cllr Kieran Quinn is executive leader of Tameside Council. “This amount of investment and external funding is fantastic news for the borough,” he said. “As well as helping to restore an attractive and historic building it will bring badly needed opportunities for enterprise and employment.”
Part of the Manchester-based northern-group, Jersey Street Properties has specialised in the regeneration of historic commercial and residential buildings. Initially established as Northern Estates Limited in 1974, it now owns and manages property in key locations around Manchester. “The company’s philosophy,” claims its web site, “has always been to create an attractive and appealing place to live, work or create — at an affordable price.”
One of northern-group’s most recent successes was the conversion of the former Flint Glass Works at Jersey Street —now within the Ancoats Urban Village area — into a range of serviced offices. The developer claims “the design of the building retains the traditional mill style of the industrial revolution, whilst incorporating ultra-modern, flexible facilities for a working environment”.
